Shimmery Marble-Accent Mani

Hallooooo :)

Before I get started--I want to quickly leave a link to a recent post on my Facebook page. If you're interested in any of the products I use and would like to get them for a very low price, or if you have any feedback for me, go check out that post! I'd love to hear your nail art requests, or other ideas for what you'd like to see on the site.

Now then, on to today's nails! I was recently inspired by this video on YouTube, and wanted to do a colourful design with water-marbled accent nails. But some things happened, and it ended up more random and skittley than I'd planned. I'll explain! ;)

Outdoors in sun

If you watched the video above, you have the basic idea of what I was trying to do: marble with three colours on the ring finger and thumb, then paint each of the other nails solidly with one of the shades in the marble. I wanted a nice shimmery design, so I chose China Glaze Blue Year's Eve (blue), Zoya Ivanka (green), and Color Club Daisy Does It (yellow), and the marbling itself went well!

But, as I was cleaning the excess polish off the water surface, preparing to take my marbled nails out of the cup, I accidentally touched the cotton swab I was using for this to my yellow middle nail, and a swirly blue and green blob was left behind. At first, I got all annoyed and thought I'd have to redo it... but then I realised that blue and green blob was pretty, so I swirled it around a little, and dabbed more splotches over the rest of the nail to make a speckly look. Cool, right?

Once that was done, I had to jazz up the other plain nails, so I pulled out coordinating blue, green, and yellow Born Pretty Store glitters and applied them to the areas you see. Finally, I topcoated with Seche Vite.

Indoors with flash

Outdoors in shade

The marble on the thumbs. Righty, y u so short for? I used a pale yellow creme as a base for the marble, so that's why the blue looks turquoise on the right hand. I used more drops of Blue Year's Eve when I got to the left hand so the colour would be more saturated :)

Outdoors in shade. And with a towel.

Speaking of Born Pretty Store, now is probably a good time to share some news! I'll be doing some product reviews for you soon, and I have been given a special code so that YOU can receive 10% off any order! They sell not only oodles of nail art supplies, but hair, makeup, and other beauty products too. The prices are great, and they even ship worldwide for free! Check them out at http://www.bornprettystore.com/ and use code CITYG10 for your discount sitewide! 

I hope you liked these. See you next time! xoxo

Not Like The Movies, Part 2 (THE SEQUEL)

Sequel... movie... see what I did there?

Hiya! Today's post is a quick one to show you the little skittlette mani I did over the swatch from yesterday.

I stamped the middle nails with Wet 'N Wild Black Creme and Bundle Monster plate BM-414. It's one from the user-created set last year, and in honour of the 2014 set coming out soon, I thought it'd be a great time to use one now! The relatively large areas of black caused those little wavy lines in the stamped image, which really don't show up at all IRL--just in these blown-up images. It's kind of a neat effect, though!

Over the small nail, I used two coats of BYS Glitter Crystal, a sort of chunky silver holo glitter, and then a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust over that. Fairy Dust is, of course, a finer silver holo. This is my new favourite glitter layering combo--they go so well together and make any base colour look amazing! I used the same method for just a stripe on the thumbnail, and used a black striper to create the lines down either side and pull this look together.

More Seche Vite, and woo! I have a total of ten coats of polish on my smallest nail, base and top coats included. LOL!

A slightly blurry one, so you can see that gorgeous sparkle :D

I have a surprise coming up next time... so stay tuned for that! xoxo

Random Holoness with Color Club!

Hello! Guess who messed up the scheduling for this post and made it go out late?

Just kidding, it was me. :P

These nails are pretty weird, though. It started as "I want to wear some holo, I'll just grab the first one I see!" It turned out to be Color Club Kismet, their light limey-sagey green Halo Hue. And then...it got crazy.

Happy "Good Time To Be In North America" Week!

Hiya! Happy Canada Day & Happy July 4th! The USA and Canada are so close together, and so are their big celebration days, so I decided to combine them into one fabulous red, white, and blue manicure:

Outdoors in shade

Baby Pink & Grey Skittle

Aloha, boys and girls :)

The weather here in sunny Oz has started to get just a tiny bit cooler as autumn settles in. I feel like today's manicure sort of captures that idea, and I'll explain why!

Quick Shot: Game Day Nails

As I mentioned, I got to go on a trip I've always dreamed of this weekend--to see Green Bay play at Lambeau Field! I of course did a manicure for the occasion. I did similar nails not too long ago, so I won't go into exhausting detail. Just a quick peek :)

Thumb and ring finger: Zoya Solange
Index and small finger: Base of Orly Pointe Blanche (white), a coat of BadAss Polish Go Pack Go! (green and yellow glitters), and a thin coat of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu! (sheer white jelly)
Middle finger: Gradient with Zoya Darcy (yellow) and China Glaze Starboard (green), coat of Rainbowgasm (my holographic frankenpolish topcoat), and a Green Bay logo nail tattoo from WinCraft.

Topcoat of Seche Vite for all but the textured nails.

the holo shining in the sun :)

what a memorable trip it was! <3

See you tomorrow for a real nail post ;) xoxo

Go Pack Go! Packers Football Nails

Hello errbody! Today is Sunday, and around here, Sunday is football day. American NFL day, to be precise. I love this game, and my favourite team is the Green Bay Packers! Today I have a manicure showing off two different Packers-themed nail products I have. Let's check it out!

get ya cheeseheads on!

First, let's talk about that awesome polish on my index and small fingers. Over a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, I have two coats of BadAssPolish's Go Pack Go!, from their "Are You Ready For Some Football?" line :D

There are only a few teams represented there so far, but I got lucky that mine was and snatched up this bottle as soon as I saw it. It's a clear suspension base packed with small green sparkle, a tiny bit of gold microglitter, and the those big yellow-gold hexes! It's very dense--over a green base I'd just use one coat, but over the white I used two. The formula is quite thick and can be tricky to work with, but the upside of this is that you don't have to fish for those big glitters at all. Plus, over a red base it would be a great Christmas look!

All their polishes are handmade, 3-free, and have those little metal balls in to keep it mixed up. The bottles are 15ml and good-quality, and the brush is nice too. Also, the packaging when shipped is the best I've ever seen! It's wrapped in a little bit of felt and secured in a small cardboard tube. Overall, I'm impressed with this brand*. I wish they had more choices, but the ones they do have are great. :)

In the sun, for sparkles. You can't really see it in these shots, but the words "Are You Ready For Some Football" are actually in the shape of a football going around the polish name on the bottle! Really cute touch.

Indoors with flash. The other side of the bottle, with the name and site URL. Go pick this up now!

On my ring finger, I have three thin coats of Zoya Ivanka, my all-time favourite green polish. Emerald with the best glassflecky beautiful sparkle ever. I need to find backups of this shade. Just amazing.

The thumb and middle finger are two coats of Zoya Darcy, which looks like a creme but in certain lights has a nice subtle yellow-gold shimmer. I really love this daffodil-yellow shade. I've seen it all over the internet and finally picked it up, and I'm already super-glad I did! I didn't have another yellow like it, plus it's a great Packers-gold shade.

On the middle finger I used some nail decals my brother got me for Christmas (thanks, Mark!). The brand is WinCraft, and although they are advertised as nail tattoos and sized as such, they are actually just the same as a temporary tattoo you would use on your skin, rather than a water decal as I first thought. They come on a sheet like this. I like that there are five different sizes, to fit each nail the same way. Unlike using them on your skin, I only had to hold the wet cloth on the back of the paper for a second or two before it transferred onto the nail, so that was handy. Sealed in with Orly Sec 'N Dry topcoat.

One more pic. Kind of blurry, kind of meh lighting, but it nicely showed off those yellow hex glitters. They stand out a lot in person!

Time to go make some food and get ready for today's game. See you next time! xoxo

*BadAssPolish did not send me this product to review, nor are they compensating me in any way for this. I bought the polish myself and am just reviewing based on my honest opinion.

Alphabet Challenge: Y is for... Yellow Skittle-y Nails + Dried Flower

Hey, you! Today is the penultimate Alphabet Challenge prompt, and features the letter Y. I knew since about M what I wanted to do for this one... yellow nails featuring these gorgeous dried flowers from Born Pretty Store!

I never get bored of this kind of manicure :D

Taking a bit of inspiration from Marta and her "skittlette" look,  I used as many yellow polishes as I could fit! Here's the rundown...

Thumb: Orly Androgynie, yellow dried flower adhered with topcoat
Index and Small: Zoya Solange
Middle: Sinful Colors Neon Melon, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow, and black Stripe Rite polish
Ring: Orly Androgynie, neon yellow studs also from BPS

Let's talk about Androgynie. I've had this polish for ages and I have no idea why I don't wear it more. It's so interesting! It's sort of a gold/yellow-toned black jelly (if that makes any sense) and filled with gold microglitter and medium hex glitters in orange, yellow, lime, teal, and royal blue! It's such a weirdly awesome combination that I am surprised that Orly made it--but very glad they did. It took three thin coats to get the coverage shown above.

Solange is another beauty... yellow/gold Pixie Dust is SO lush. It looks and feels like I have real gold on my fingertips. I can't stop staring at it and definitely want to wear it again soon!

The flower was not as tricky to get on as I thought it would be. I applied a thick layer of a slow-drying clear polish, then used tweezers to place the flower and gently press the edges of the flower as the polish dried to stick it down. Then I used one thick layer of Maya Smoothing Coat For Glitter (tested, confirmed also works on flowers) followed by a coat of Seche Vite. Sealed in and smooth to the touch!

Before topcoat. Wanted to get a photo first in case the topcoat made it go horribly wrong. I am happy to report it did not!

And one more pic, out in the nice yellow sunlight, for good measure :)

Because sunlight makes the neon really pop! You can also see more of Androgynie's and Solange's true natures here.

Little pop of happy bright yellow to pick you up mid-week. Hope you enjoyed this one. See you next time! xoxo

Alphabet Challenge: H is for... Happy Holy Halo

Hallooooo! Today's manicure is based on the letter H. Let's get right to it!

Isn't it just.. heavenly? :D

Hooray for skittle manis :D

I used four polishes for this look, as well as those cool studs. Let's break it down!

Thumb: Two coats of a-england Holy Grail (original formula)

Index finger: Three coats of OPI Happy Anniversary!, a beautiful pearl-white polish. I used to dislike pearl polishes because it's all my grandmother ever wore. My grandmother is lovely, don't get me wrong, but it just got associated with 'old lady' in my mind. However, this is more shimmery and glassflecky rather than frosty, and at certain angles there are subtle flashes of baby blue and pink! It's really nice. Atop that I placed two gold square studs from this wheel from Born Pretty Store. (Can't wait to play more with these studs!)

Middle finger: Two coats of Holy Grail, glitter gradient tip with Orly Halo. More about that one in a minute...

Ring finger: Three coats of Happy Anniversary!, two dots of Halo, and one heart-shaped gold stud from this other BPS wheel. (and a par-triiiiidge in a pear treeeee)

Small finger: Two coats of Halo. Back to this polish! It is a great glitter! It is a dense mix of gold microglitter and small silver hex glitters. By dense, I mean really nicely dense--covers completely in two coats, has a nice thickness about it that isn't too gloppy but is really great for this type of polish. It's very elegant--I could see it being used for formal-event manicures.

Sealing it all in is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri #110 Clearly Quick topcoat.

Out in the sun. Look at them glow! *cue holy angel choir music*

I really love this soft white and gold combination! I think the 'angelic' colour scheme went well with the names of the polishes. Would you wear skittley, studded nails like these? xx

Nails Inc. Bling It On Rebel Nail Art Kit: Review & Skittle Mani

Hello! Today I have a manicure that stands in stark contrast to the almost angelic look of the last one :) I picked up the Nails Inc. Bling It On: Rebel kit not too long ago and have been itching to try it out. I used it as well as a few other polishes to do a punky skittle manicure. Check it out!

badassssssssss :D

I'm really liking this look! Nails Inc. has several cool nail art kits, but this "Rebel" kit is the only one so far that I felt really compelled to pick up. The kit comes in a box that looks like this:

It comes with a bottle of black "leather" textured polish called Soho, ten small silver square studs, ten small Swarovski crystals, ten large ones, ten small black stones, and four silver skulls with crystal embellishments. It also has a bottle of nail glue, but it is a regular squeezy bottle and doesn't have a brush, so I promptly emptied it into one of my other bottles that does have a brush--ha. Oh yeah, and a couple of orangewood sticks for picking up the decorations :)

The leather-effect polish is COOL :D  I didn't think it looked leathery in the pics I saw online before, but in person, totally does. I'm super diggin' it!

Similar pose to above, but with flash--I think it shows the texture better.

I used a few other polishes as well, obviously. Let's go down the list!

Thumb: Nails Inc. Soho Leather Effect polish + skull decoration
Index: Hot Topic brand silver polish. No name, but it's really nice. And the bottle has fishnet pattern and a skull on it, so it's kind of fitting for this mani :D Then of course, two of the small black stones.
Middle: Nails Inc. Soho, one silver stud, one small crystal
Ring: Hot Topic silver polish, then a coat of OPI Black Shatter
Small: Zoya Dahlia, one of the Pixie Dust matte-glitter shades

The Leather Effect polish says that for best results, one should apply it without basecoat. I never go without basecoat though, so I ignored this, but followed the rest of the instructions, which was to allow the first coat to completely dry before adding a second. The texture looks great to me, so I don't think my basecoat (which was Seche Retain, btw) negatively affected it.

Zoya Dahlia is similar, in that you're meant to apply 2-3 coats while letting them dry fully in between. The results are spectacular! I didn't think I'd like these Pixie Dust shades as much as I do.

Anyway, the non-textured nails were topped with Seche Vite and... now I'll stop blathering and just show you more pics, since that's what you came for! :P

Click to enlarge--you can really see the texture of the leather-effect polish here, as well as the difference between it and Dahlia. They feel almost identical, but the Pixie Dust shades all have silver sparkles included.

Close-up of the thumb with the wee skull accent. They stayed on surprisingly well, despite getting caught on absolutely everything. Didn't budge until I was ready to remove the manicure and (carefully) pried them off.

So... yeah! Hope you enjoyed this rockin' look. I will definitely play with this kit more in future posts. If you're interested in picking one up for yourself, they can be found at the Nails Inc. website, or at Sephora (for a lot cheaper, if you happen to be in their shipping area)! Or you know, the actual store, but that involves scary things like "leaving the house" and all. ;) Anyway, see you next time! xoxo

Easter Egg Skittle Nails: Easter Nail Design #2

Hello lovelies! Super quick post today! I'm heading to the beach for the weekend! I am creating a really special manicure for this trip, one I have been wanting to do for a while. I collected some materials last year and with the release of the new Zoya Pixie Dust shades, I have everything I need to make it amazing! That's all I'll say for now ;) you'll have to wait and see. For now, have a look at the easter-egg nails I wore this week!

Do they look like multicoloured eggs? :)

I used lots of polishes and stamps for this, obviously. Let's go down the list!

Thumb: Base colour is Orly Snowcone. Stamping is from Bundle Monster plate BM-302 in Konad white and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri #220 Flashy Fuschia. Grass painted on with a small brush and Orly Fresh.

Index finger: Base of Zoya Jolene. Stamping with Bundle Monster plate BM-323 in Sally Hansen Insta-Dri #230 Silver Sweep.

Middle finger: Base of Sinful Colors #947 Mint Apple. Stamping with Bundle Monster plate BM-314 in Konad white .

Ring finger: Base of Revlon #325 Gumdrop (scented polish!). Stamping with Mash plate 43 in OPI Gift Cards For Everyone.

Small finger: Base of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear #360 Mellow Yellow. Stamping with Mash plate 45 and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri #220 Flashy Fuschia.

As you can see, the stamping wasn't perfect :( small and ring fingers smudged near the tip... But I still thought these were cute and I had a lot of fun wearing them.

Close-up of the bunny on the thumb. Isn't he just precious? :D

Have a fun, safe, and happy Easter. See you next week! xoxo

St. Patrick's Mani #1: 50 Shades of Green

Oi there! Time for some fun St. Paddy's nails! St. Patrick's Day is one of my favourite holidays, oddly enough. I just love going all out with the green clothes, and the parties, and the Irish music, and, well... beer. I do like me some beer. And while this manicure may not actually have 50 shades of green in it (more like seven), it's a fun name. :D

Left some tartan/plaid in the background, for added Celtic-ness. Kind of. Not really.

As you can see, several polishes went into this, so let's go down the list:

- Thumb and ring finger: Base is two coats of Zoya Midori, then dots of China Glaze Glittering Garland were added with a dotting tool.

- Index finger: Base of China Glaze Paper Chasing, topped with two thick coats of Orly Mermaid Tale <3

- Middle finger: Three coats of CG Paper Chasing, and then the dark and light green square rhinestones are from a Born Pretty Store assorted wheel. Yes, those are light green, they just sort of look white/silver here.

- Small finger: Three coats of China Glaze He's Running In Circles. It's a light minty green scattered holo polish and is very nice! It looks kind of silver on cam but isn't IRL, and looks greener still in the bottle than on the nail.

All topped off with a coat or two of Seche Vite topcoat.

With my green pen! I have a thing for pens whose ink colour matches the barrel. I also love close-up shots of Mermaid Tale. You can also see more of the scattered holographic effect of He's Running In Circles.

Without flash. Please excuse my cuticles. This dry, cold, windy weather has not been kind to them.

Last, a flash pic where Mermaid Tale just lit up like fireworks! Had to include it :D

Hope you liked this one! I'll have some more lucky green manicures between now and the 17th--and I just received the Color Club 2013 Halo Hues too, so you can bet your sexy bum I'll be displaying those here soon as well! xoxo

Pirate Polish--Love in a Cold Climate collection: Skittle mani!

Happy Sunday, everyone! I hope everyone is feeling as grand as I am today. It's quite chilly outside (37F, 2C) but super bright and sunny! After weeks on end of grey, rainy weather, I am loving this nice change. It's still cold, so I can totally get away with just now showing off the Valentine-esque collection by indie brand Pirate Polish called Love in a Cold Climate. Most people reviewed these last month, but better late than never, amirite?

I just love that there's a Ninja Polish and a Pirate Polish. Those of you who know me at all know which way I go (hint: ARRRRRR!), and this collection was so cute I had to get it, although I just went for the mini-bottles. Instead of simply swatching, which plenty of folks have already done, I went for a random skittle mani to show different combos together!

They sort of remind me of candy.

There are four polishes at work here:

Be Mine is the soft pink creme. In the bottle there is SO much gold shimmer, but on the nail it doesn't come out as much. It's really nice, though. Two thick coats or three thin ones are enough for this opacity. I used that as the base on the small, middle, and index fingers.

The red base is Cinnamon Girl, which is a squishy jelly red with lots of red and holographic sparkles! I love cinnamon, and I'm pretty sure this was the one that pushed me over the edge and made me order the set. This is three thin coats.

Over the index nail you can see two coats of Lovandula, which is a great glitter topper! Tiny blue and purple microglitters, medium-sized satiny pink hexes, large purple holo glitters, and those fantastic purple satiny diamond-shaped glitters! I think it looks great over Be Mine, but I'm going to wear it over purple next time--I'll bet that will look splendid.

On the middle and thumb nails, you can see the glitter topper Love in a Cold Climate, the collection's namesake, and my favourite of the bunch! I love the mix going on here and how opaque the glitters are--they show up over anything! Tiny squares, medium hexes, and big hearts all in both blue and white, plus white diamonds and square iridescent specks, for some shine. I think it looks so neat over the red! That was two coats, with some fishing needed to get the hearts out, but not too bad at all--the suspension base these glitters are in is GREAT.

Pretty much just put this pic here because it made me laugh. My actual thumbnail is the size that the middle white heart appears here!

I posted the link above, but I'll add it again here: Pirate Polish on Etsy
They have lots of great polishes, including this set which is still in stock!

And with that, I'm off to enjoy this beautiful day. See you next time! xoxo