NOTD Feb 7/13 - navy and mini hearts

This background colour would not photograph properly and it was so frustrating! It looks black but it is a deep navy! It reminds me of something you would see at American Eagle Outfitters, a pattern on a shirt or something. It's cute for Valentine's Day but it would work any time of the year, and in lots of colour combos! Here is a great swatch by the Polish-A-Holic which shows how the colour REALLY looks!

Background is Barielle in Berry Blue, hearts are Wet n' Wild Wild Shine in Red Red and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On.

NOTD January 30/13 - valentine's day dotticure

The first of my Valentine's Day manicures is here! I really love this one, it started out with one idea (the dotted heart design) but then grew when I decided I didn't want to do that design on each nail. So I went for the cuticle dot gradient with a contrasting colour on the ring finger. Love this so much!

NOTD Jan 7/12 - glitter space

This could be termed the lazy woman's galaxy manicure as well! I just wanted to test out the new polish I picked up at Shoppers Drug Mart, Essence Chic Reloaded. In the bottle it is dark shimmery reddish purple with a little bit of greenish duochrome. The green doesn't translate onto the nail from what I can see, but the reddish-purple looks so cool on the nails I'm not even mad! It's shimmery but dark enough to be kind of vampy, but it doesn't stray into that so dark you need a spotlight on it to tell whether it's black or not kind of territory.

But I can never seem to leave well enough alone, so I had to add something - glitter! I used Wet n' Wild Kaleidoscope, which looks like a dark silver glitter but on the nails a lot of the pieces flash rainbow colours, and it's all various sizes of smaller glitter. These were hard to stop staring at!

In other news, I wanted to share the happy announcement that I will shortly be starting a new job! I took a course in the fall to qualify for my level 1 insurance broker/adjuster's license, and I just got a job at a brokerage! The start of a new job is always exciting, and the start of a new career is even moreso! :D

NOTD Dec 25/12 - Snowman!

The last Christmas manicure of the year! Always sad, there are so many cute Christmas manis to do but such a limited time to do them! This was inspired by a mani I saw at Polish Etc. I added glitter on top of the white to make it look like glittering snow!

Merry Christmas everyone!

NOTD Dec 6/12 - snowflakes and dots

Another cute snowflake design! I know everybody does them but there are so many options for snowflake nail art and I think they're so adorable. This one features some cute contrasting dots in Christmassy colours. I did my right hand with just dots since drawing snowflakes with my left hand felt a little too daunting this time around. Usually my right hand is identical to my left hand, but I give myself a break now and then!

The background is good old Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On, the blue is an Art Club striper I got in a set, the red is Wet n' Wild Wild Shine in Red Red and the green is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Green With Envy.

Guest post at Ruby's Nails!

Hey guys! Go check out my guest post over at Ruby's Nails, featuring this mani! :)

NOTD Nov 10/12 - Lest We Forget

I wanted to do something appropriate for that important day that comes before Christmas season truly begins - Remembrance Day. Poppies are the symbol of that day, and so I thought it would be perfect to do a poppy design on my nails. I actually see them more than I would see the poppy pinned to my chest, so the reminder of what to be so thankful for seems more ever-present.

 I did a design of poppies and buds as well, I really love how this design turned out overall and I'm pretty proud of it!

The background is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On, the black is SH Xtreme Wear in Black Out, and the red is Wet n' Wild Wild Shine in Red Red.

FOTD Sep 28/12 - no eyeshadow and darker hair!

This is a look I pretty much NEVER go with, but it was born of necessity this time! I have no idea why but recently my eyelids have been really dry and irritated, which is something that has never happened to me. I don't know why it's happening but I'm trying to keep from irritating them further, so when I did this look (actually yesterday) I tried to do a look that didn't have any eyeshadow. Well, that's not entirely true - I did a tiny bit of shadow just along the lashline on the outer corners for a bit of definition. But nothing on the lids themselves!

Since I'm not used to going without shadow, it was a bit of an experiment for me! I decided to balance out the lack of eyeshadow with extra mascara, bright blush and pinky nude lips.

And as you can also see, my hair is back to darker! I was overdue for a re-dye!

I styled my hair by twisting the hair back and pulling more hair into the twist as I went back, and then pinning it on the back of my head. And then lots of hairspray and pins to keep the shorter bits from falling out!

There were a couple new elements in my makeup too, besides the lack of eyeshadow on the lids! I finally decided to try out another mascara, after only using Cover Girl Lashblast waterproof for the past few years! I picked up Essence Get Big! Lashes in Waterproof... and I'm glad I did! Although it's not replacing my CG Lashblast (I still love it the best!) I like it for layering. I've found to get a ton of volume on lashes you want to layer two different kinds, one coat after another. I did that with the CG and the Essence mascaras and was able to get a lot more volume.

Also new was a kind of lipstick hack I did. Last year I bought Wet n' Wild Mega Last Lip Color in Just Peachy (903C) and I loooved the colour but found that the matte finish just didn't work on me. My lips are very dry and tend to get really flaky, very quickly. So matte is not an option for me. But I didn't want to lose that awesome colour! So I bought some little plastic pop-top containers from the dollar store, and created a gloss out of it instead! I mixed the lipstick, some Vaseline, and a bit of two kinds of lip gloss (one more pink and one more nude-peach) together and created what I'm wearing on my lips! It's got a glossy finish but a really opaque colour because the lipstick was such an opaque shade. I love it!!

I also wore two bright pinky blushes here, a cream with a powder layered on top.

Have you ever had to change up your usual makeup routine or try something totally different unexpectedly? How did you adapt, and what did you have to do?

NOTD Sep 20/12 - apples!

I wanted something really cute and simple this time - I had started another design but it just was not turning out so I started over and didn't want to do something else time-intensive! I hadn't checked out anything on the CutePolish channel on YouTube in a while, so I looked at it and she had posted this adorable apple manicure about a month ago! I thought it was so sweet so I decided to replicate it!

I followed all the steps in the video, using Wet n' Wild Wild Shine in Red Red, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Green With Envy, and Cherimoya Melon for the apples. I used Revlon Chocolate Truffle for the stems and Sinful Colors Envy for the leaves. She didn't include this in her tutorial, but I added some white reflection marks on the apples to make them look really shiny and juicy! I love these, they're so cute to look at! I haven't done a "fancy tips" style manicure probably since I did a Hello Kitty mani around a year ago!

NOTD Jul 30/12 - home, haul, glitter!

Hey everyone! We got back home on Saturday after our AMAZING trip to Disneyland! I had sooo much fun and I wish I could go back right now! I'm slooowly working my way through editing all of our photos. I'll be sure to throw a few up here on the blog!

The day after I got back I managed to haul a few things! Three nail polishes and a blush (the blush I'll do a seperate post for) and I replaced my poor beat up Disneyland manicure with a fresh new one! I had been wanting a multi-coloured glitter for ages, and when I saw this NYX one at the store I had to get it. The other two just called out to me, so they had to come home too!

Left to right they are: Wet n' Wild Wild Shine in Sparked (silver and rose microglitter in a clear base), NYX Advanced Salon Formula in Multi Glitter (various sizes of silver, red, blue, yellow, green, pink, purple and orange glitter in a clear base), and NYX Advanced Salon Formula in Disco Inferno (silver holo microglitter in a clear base).

Here they are up close.

And here's the mani I made layering Multi Glitter over black! A simple mani and I'd seen it before, but never tried it myself, due to lacking the multi coloured glitter!

NOTD Jul 11/12 - colourblock meets drippy

That was really the best title I could think of for this because honestly, it's kind of random and abstract! It was one of those "comes to you while sitting in bed" kind of ideas, and I'm glad it came because I really like this design! I feel like it lends itself to lots of different colour palettes, and it's not a really difficult design to execute but it does have visual impact. And it's just fun to look at!

First I painted my nails with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On. Then I added a stripe of LA Girl Disco Brites in Disco Diva to the middle third of my nail, and then Wet n' Wild Wild Shine in Red Red to the top third. Then I just did stripes of the middle colour (pink) down into the lower third of white, pulled red stripes down into the middle third of pink, and added white stripes and a thin white tip to the top third of red!

NOTD July 2/12 - starry sky

First of all, I have to say a big happy belated Canada Day! <3 <3

Next up, a new mani finally! I haven't been feeling all that inspired when it came to my nails lately, any nail art I was doing was for sets for my Etsy. So when I'm having phases like that I do the sensible thing and use polishes that don't get a lot of love with nail art. My manis for the last week or two have been using glitter polishes that I haven't used in a while. It's good to give them some love too!

But the other night I finally had a strike of inspiration for some nail art! I call these ones "starry sky" because well, that's what they look like! Sort of like galaxy nails, but more like what they'd look like from here on Earth! I like how they turned out, very sparkly and kind of ethereal!

Colours used:
Sally Hansen CSM in Navy Baby - a shimmery deep navy, did one coat as background
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Deep Blue Sea - pictured above, a medium blue foil, added one coat on top of the navy blue
Nicole by OPI in You're A Star - shimmery, pearly white, drew on crosses and dots for stars diagonally across each nail
White striper polish - added accents to some of the stars
Wet n Wild Wild Shine in Kaleidoscope - silver and iridescent glitter in clear base, swiped it over the stars concentrating on the middle of the "galaxy" and thinning the glitter on the edges
Then added top coat and voila, all done!

Hope you like!

NOTD Jun 20/12 - rhinestone strawberry

Strawberries on my nails! Finally! I've wanted to do it forever! But I wanted some blingy-bling on it, so the ring fingers have rhinestone seeds! And I mixed it up by making some of the strawberries pink. I'm in love with these!

Colours used:
 Revlon Top Speed in Pink Lingerie
Wet n Wild Wet Shine in Red Red
custom green mix

NOTD Jun 3/12 - Diamond Jubilee

Hey everyone! I've been pretty happy to see how many people have been doing nails in honour of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee this week! For those who don't know, it is the 60 year anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's reign. Although I'm not British, I am Canadian which makes her my Queen too! I've always been very interested in the royal family both past and present, and I find the Queen herself to be a really admirable and wonderful person! I saw a special about her on TV the other night and fell in love with her all over again! I knew I had to do a manicure for the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee.

Fairly simple in design, I'm so happy how it looks! It's very bright and striking... my bus driver even commented on them hehehe!

Colours used:
Essence in Walk on Air
white striper polish
Wet n Wild Wild Shine in Red Red
rhinestones from Born Pretty Store (use coupon code KK5W21 for 5% off your order!)

NOTD May 30/12 - magenta glitter drips, plus coupon code for Born Pretty Store!

This idea has been sort of brewing in my head for a little while, and in real life I'm loving how it turned out! I wanted to do something drippy and glittery and this so fit the bill!

It's difficult to see but I added a single fuchsia rhinestone to the ring finger. After I did it I realized it would have looked better with a red stone since the magenta polish I used is more red-based and the rhinestone is more blue toned, but minor details, no biggie!

Colours used:
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Naked Ambition
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Frutti Petutie
Wet n Wild Wild Shine in Kaleidoscope
Rhinestones from Born Pretty Store

Also, Born Pretty Store was awesome and let me share this coupon code with you for 5% off your order! Honestly the stuff there is already so inexpensive you hardly need an extra discount, but saving money never hurts right?


KK5W21

NOTD May 16/12 - red with silver glitter

Hey everyone! Wow, I don't know how it happened that I went 10 days without an update! I had pictures lined up but I guess my schedule must have gotten in the way!

Anyhow, here's a quickie manicure I did actually last week, randomly chose the colours and I LOVE how this looks. It almost seems "accidentally Disney" to me with that colour scheme! I guess I've really got Disney on the brain though :) I'm planning a trip to Disneyland for this July! So exciting!

Colours:
Wet n Wild Wild Shine in Red Red
LA Girl Glitter Addict in Explosion

NOTD May 6/12 - soft glittery gradient

I had been meaning to do a gradient because it had been quite a while! I forgot how long these little guys can take though - no matter how opaque the colours you choose are, sponging them on makes them really sheer so it takes a few coats to build up opacity! And I found to get the proper blur between colours I had to go back and forth between shades and blend into the other colour(s) from both directions. But I think it was well worth the effort! I love how this turned out! And of course for me, no gradient is complete without a quick coat of glitter to really blend it all together and make it look finished.

Colours used (starting with gradient colours in order from cuticle to tip, then the glitter topper):
Barielle in Sailor's Delight
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Lacey Lilac
Essence Colour & Go in You Belong to Me
Wet n' Wild Wild Shine in Kaleidoscope