Inspired By…The Lacquerologist!

I love looking at other nail blogs…it's just so fascinating to see what other people come up with and of course, the swatches add to my never-ending have to have it list, and sometimes end up inspiring a bottle in my ever growing pile of polishes!

A looong while back The Lacquerologist posted a manicure I ADORED, you can see it here. I love her work in general, but this one really stuck in my head and I finally had to try it out. Here's my interpretation of the her awesome manicure, I used two coats of Sinful Colors Shock and Awe on my pinky, and two coats of Sinful Colors Nirvana on all the other fingers, except the ring finger. On the ring finger I did half of the nail in Shock and Awe and the other half in Nirvana. Then I added in the stripes down the middle using Sinful Colors Inkwell.

I loooooved this manicure, it was so bright and eye-catching and I got lots of compliments on it when I was wearing it too :)

Really random, but my bottle of Nirvana says Matte on the label…but it dried shiny, what's up with that?!

Thanks for reading everyone!

OMD 31 Day Challenge - Day 20 - 3-D Nails

Yay! Day 20! I should (hopefully) get all caught up tomorrow.

Day 20 is one of my favorite mani's so far this challenge. I really enjoyed it and it turned out exactly the way I wanted it to.

I started with three coats of Zoya Nyx (did I mention I love textured polishes, cuz I do. I really, really love them!). Even though it takes three coats which is a total drag I love how sparkly and delicate the blue is. When it was dry I added a tiny half flower in the cuticle area using round and oval shaped studs. I loved how textured the whole mani was between the textured polish and the studs.

Thanks for reading!!

Check out the other 3-D mani's here

OMD 31 Day Challenge - Day 14 - Flowers

Today is flower day!! It's going to be a short post again since I'm late again!

I started with two coats of China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-Le. It was very streaky and sheer on the first coat but evened out really well on the second. I made the flowers using a dotting tool and OPI Skull & Glossbones and OPI I'm Suzi & I'm A Chocoholic. Skull & Glossbones was perhaps not a great choice as it was pretty sheer for the dots. I really like how the end result is vintage feeling.

Thanks for reading!!

Check out the other flower manis here

OMD 31 Day Challenge - Day 12 - Dots

Today is Dot day and Friday, double yay!

I've been using a LOT of dots in this challenge so far so I decided not to do another one of the same style I've already done. So today I have 3D dots! I really like the way they look like they're trying to escape off my nails!!

I started with two coats of Essie Smooth Sailing as a base. It's a gorgeous blue with a delightful shimmer! Once that was dry I used Wet N Wild Black Creme to do the dots, then I went back over them with Barielle Going to the Chapel and offset the second dots a bit to make them look 3D. I really enjoyed these nails...I'll definitely be trying this again!

Thanks for reading!

Check out all the other awesome challenge manis here

OMD 31 Day Challenge - Day 10 - Metallic

Hello! Happy Wednesday!

Today is Metallic day of the OMD 31 Day Challenge! And today I have my very first ruffian manicure! The two colors I used were sitting beside each other just begging to be used and I think they compliment each other very well. They sort of remind me of denim and the rivets on jeans.

For all fingers but my ring finger I started with 2 coats of Rimmel London Hard Metal. I love this blue, and I love Rimmel London polishes. I have two and they're both great, next time they go on sale I'll have to pick up more. I love the brush and the formulas, they're hidden gems! On my ring finger I started with two coats of Pure Ice Magic. It was opaque after one coat but I wanted to smooth out the brush marks and then I got bubbles with the second coat, I should have stopped at one coat :( It should work great for stamping though given how opaque it was! I then freehanded the ruffian with a small brush and the alternate colors on each finger.

Thanks for reading!

Make sure to check out the other mani's here

OMD 31 Day Challenge - Day 7 - Holo

Hey everyone!! I'm cutting it pretty close again...I should have a bit more free time next week so hopefully I'll have more time for nails and not be posting challenge manis all last minute.

Today is holo day in the 31 Day Challenge. I have a stamping manicure for you, I've read numerous times how well the Color Club Halo Hues work for stamping, and they didn't disappoint! I started with two coats of Pure Ice Bikini. Bikini is fast becoming my favorite light blue, I've already used it twice this week! That's like some sort of record or something, lol. Once that was dry I used Color Club Over the Moon and stamped with plate 214 from Bundle Monster. My ring finger is two coats of Over the Moon on its own.

And since I've been running so late I ran out of sunlight before I was done this mani tonight. So the next two pictures are under my daylight lamp to show the holo goodness of Over the Moon.

Yummy! Holo goodness! Thanks for reading :)

Check out the other participant's manis too here

OMD 31 Day Challenge - Day 5 - Skittles

Happy Friday everyone! I hope your Friday was great and you're looking forward to your weekend!! I'm going to be doing my best to keep up with the challenge so fingers crossed that there will be two manis from me this weekend.

Today is Skittles day in the 31 Day Challenge. I have a pastel polka dot skittle mani for you! Here's what I used:

• Thumb: two coats of China Glaze Something Sweet
• Pointer: two coats of Julep Renee
• Middle: two coats of Julep Shenae, it has a slight shimmer
• Ring: two coats of Pure Ice Bikini. I LOVE this blue, it was so smooth and the perfect dusty pastel blue.
• Pinky: three coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls

My thumb, pointer, middle and ring finger are all dotted using OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. The dots on my pinky are done using the base colors on the other finger.

I really liked this mani, it was delicate and fun at the same time. Not really season appropriate, it was more springy, but that's ok I still loved it!

Thanks for reading!!

You can see the other participant's manis here

OMD 31 Day Challenge - Day 2 - Blue

Hi everyone! I hope all you fellow Canadians out there had a good Canada Day yesterday and had a decent psuedo-Monday. I love short weeks!

Today I have day two of the OMD 31 day challenge which is blue! I have a simple manicure today which actually turned out the way I envisioned. That rarely happens!

I started with two coats of Julep Ally. Ally is a beautiful bright blue with a dark, evil side. The dark side is the formula, it was incredibly thick and goopy. And it smelt funny, sort of skunky. But the color is lovely. After Ally had finally dried (it took forever, even with Seche Vite) I lightly brushed Joe Fresh Twilight at the base of my nails. I used a second coat of top coat my right hand and Ally made weird wrinkles all over my nail with the second coat of Seche, so I skipped the second coat of top coat on my left hand. I really love the color of Ally, but the formula is terrible and definitely not what I've come to expect from Julep polishes.

The goldie-yellowie color above is what Twilight looks like most of the time, but when the light hits it just right it makes a lovely green which you can see on my pinky nail below. I love the greeny color with the blue.

Here's a direct sunlight photo, isn't the bright blue color lovely? Too bad about the formula :(

Thanks for reading!

Check out the other participants mani's here.

First Saran Wrap Manicure

Good morning!!

I must admit I've always admired saran wrap manicures that I've seen around the blogosphere. I finally decided to give it a try myself, and I love it! It's such an easy way to make an interesting manicure and you don't have to worry about things not lining up perfectly or stamping perfectly or being anything perfectly and it's supposed to look that way!

I decided to go with two sort of similar colors so that if I didn't like it the mani wouldn't be too garish to wear for the rest of the day. As a base I used 2 coats of China Glaze Sea Spray. Once that was dry I painted on a thick coat of Pure Ice Risk Taker and then daubed the saran wrap on the top to pick up a bit of the top color and reveal Sea Spray underneath. These nails remind me of marble, I should do a white and Risk Taker saran wrap manicure, that would definitely look like I had tiny slabs of marble on my fingers!

Thanks for reading!!

Monday...boooo :( Luckily it's almost over. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Just a quick post today since it's so late. It's almost my bedtime! Today I have some blue and silver stripes. These nails really reminded me of cheerleader nails, I wanted to grab a pompom and fling it around with these nails!

On every finger except my ringer finger I started with three coats of OPI Your Royal Shinie-ness. I then put a strip of striping tape near the tips of my nails and painted a coat of China Glaze Want My Bawdy over the top and then pulled off the striping tape to reveal Your Royal Shinie-ness. I reversed the colors on my accent finger, I used two coats of Want My Bawdy as the base for the accent and covered the striping tape with Your Royal Shinie-ness.

Thanks for reading!

Blue and Brown Skittlette

Happy Friday everyone! Here comes the weekend!!!

Today I have a skittlette manicure for you! It features on my pointer and middle finger an unknown light (but still nice and bright!) blue from Color Club. Until the latest releases that arrived at Winners the multi-pack Color Clubs were nameless in both their collections and their individual color names. This one came in a pack with some other pastel/bright colors. Wasn't that a fantastic description, lol. If anyone knows the name of the color let me know!!

Anyways, I used four coats of the unknown blue. It was really streaky and sheer, but once it finally was opaque it was really beautiful. My ring finger and pinky finger are one (!!!) coat of China Glaze Mahogany Magic. I know lots of people aren't brown polish fans, but I quite like browns, I think they're fairly flattering for my skin tone. My ring finger has a star rhinestone which I purchased in a big ring of star rhinestones in various colors from Born Pretty Store. My pinky has one thick coat of Essie Shine of the Times. I love this polish, it adds such an interesting dimension to any polish and looks so different depending on the color underneath it, it's a real chameleon!

I love how the next picture really showcases the change from orange to green from Shine of the Times on my pinky finger. I spent a ridiculous amount of time looking at the color change in my pinky nail when I wore this mani! I just couldn't resist!

Thanks for reading!

Sinful Colors Cinderella Stamped

I had read all around on the blogosphere about Sinful Colors Cinderella and it was a lemming of mine. It's a beautiful light sky blue with a pink shimmer, and I was ecstatic when I found it on holidays last year. Even though I had read complaints about the formula I still was psyched to get it. The formula does leave quite a bit to be desired, it's really sheer and streaky. Since I'm fairly impatient and don't like to do multiple coats I sloped on three pretty thick coats for this manicure. It was fairly thick feeling on my nails which bothers me so next time I think I use it I think I'll exercise a bit more patience and use thinner coats. I really like the color though so will likely suffer through it's application issues again!

I stamped over top of Cinderella on my middle and ring fingers using Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Slick Slate and Bundle Monster plate 313. I used the two flowery images on the plate, to me they sort of look like mature dandelions ready to disintegrate in the wind on a summers day.

Thanks for reading!

Julep Annie Peacock Inspired Manicure

This manicure was inspired by the brightness of a peacock and my need to use blue polish. Blue is one of my favourite polish colours but I don't seem to reach for it too often, whenever I do though I always end up loving it. I really should use blue more often!

Julep describes Annie as an "electric blue topaz creme". The formula on this one was excellent, I used two coats, but if I would have been careful I could have gotten away with one. It's very pigmented and levelled itself out very well. I used Bundle Monster plate number 212 and Konad white for the peacock feather looking design. Then to add a bit of interest I added some small round pink rhinestones from Cheeky Beauty to my ring fingers.

I love the feeling of the rhinestones on the polish. I spent the whole time I was wearing this mani running my fingers over them!

Thanks for reading!