NOTD Mar 4/13 - violet and colourful glitter

I just loved this new shade of polish so much I had to find a way to use it! It's another dollar store one, can't remember the exact price but it was somewhere in the $2 range, and it applies marvellously for such a cheap polish! Doesn't have that stinky chemical smell some cheaper polishes can have too which is even more of a bonus.

I kept it simple (for me) with a couple coats of the gorgeous violet and then a glitter gradient that was multicoloured.

The violet is Tivoli Color Shock in shade NP127 (have I mentioned how much I hate it when companies don't actually name their shades? Grrr!) and the glitter is NYX Advanced Salon Formula Nail Polish in Multi Glitter. At least it has a name, but no points for creativity there.

NOTD Dec 24/12 - icy winter blues gradient

Just a simple winter blues gradient! It has a tiny blue flakies topcoat over it to make it look extra icy cold! I love how it turned out. :)

 Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On, with Nicole by OPI "Baby" Blue sponged on and Revlon Scented Polish in Colada Fizz on top!

NOTD Oct 30/12 - black and red glitter gradient

Just a quick one today! I wore these nails to pair with my Halloween costume this past weekend, which was a black devil costume - just a simple horns headband and a tail and I wore all black. Cute and simple and these nails gave it a little bit of colour! Not the best picture but it was cloudy and early and I was in a rush!

I used a few colours in this - basic black obviously, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Black Out. Then for the reds I used Illamasqua Scarab, Revlon Cherry Crush, and LA Girl Glitter Addict in Animate.

NOTD Sep 15/12 - vertical dots and glitter tips!

Sometimes I get a random idea for an abstract nail design that I haven't seen anywhere (to my knowledge anyways, if this design has already been done by someone, I either haven't seen it or I have but it went straight to my subconscious mind). When I do, they either turn out NOTHING like what I pictured in my head, or really cool. In this case, I think it falls into the really cool category!

The design itself is simple. Vertical dots on the nails, in alternating colours, with different sized dots and different length rows. And then glitter on the tips. I wouldn't mind trying out other colour combos, but I love how this looks the first time around!

 The blue dots are Nicole by OPI in "Baby" Blue, the pink dots are Revlon Pink Lingerie, and the silver glitter is LA Girl Glitter Addict in Explosion.

NOTD Sep 12/12 - peachy pink and gold glitter gradient

I just got all those glitters in from my Cherry Culture order, and it had been so long since I did one of my favourites, a glitter gradient!

First was a couple coats of LA Girl Nude Polish in Dainty, then I sponged on Sally Hansen
CSM in Gilty Pleasure to start the gradient. I topped that with a sponging of LA Girl Rock Star in Live On Stage, and I had planned to stop there but it didn't quite look finished to me, so I added a thin coat of Milani Jewel FX in Gold over the tips and spilling down into the other part of the gradient and then it was perfect!

I've been lemming the Jewel FX for aages, so glad I finally got my hands on it!

Review/NOTD Sep 2/12 - Lush Lacquer's Salt n' Peppa over gradient

I went back and forth in my mind a lot about what to wear under this polish! Since it's a black and white glitter you can wear pretty much anything with it, so it was hard to narrow it down! I thought about some shades, then I thought about doing a different colour on each finger. Then it was a matter of whether to do brights, pastels or ombre from thumb to pinky. I had settled on a selection of colours for each nail, but as I sat down and was about to do it, it hit me that I hadn't done a gradient in a while! So I picked out two of the shades I was going to use and gradient-ized them instead!

I had kind of forgotten the power of a gradient to really give impact to a design and make it look more interesting with minimal effort. I've tried different techniques, but my favourite is still the most basic - paint your nails with the bottom colour (the one closest to your cuticle) and then sponge on the upper colour(s) with a makeup sponge. I also like to go back with the bottom colour to sponge in the middle and blur the line a little better, and then paint a little bit of the tip colour with the brush from the bottle right on the ends to make sure the colour is really opaque there.

Then I topped it off with a coat of my second fantastic shade from Lush Lacquer, Salt n' Peppa! It's an awesome black and white glitter topcoat with all kinds of shapes - bar, hex, square, even vaguely rectangular ones. And there's also some iridescent silvery microglitter tossed in there too, so this has a nice sparkle to it as well as being very graphic and bold looking! It's nice and full of glitter
 just like Mr.Bubble, also no need to fish around for glitter. I did 1.5 to 2 coats anyways to get the coverage I like. The base is not quite as thick as Mr.Bubble too, which is nice.

Colours used for the gradient are Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Lacey Lilac and Barielle in Blossom.

NOTD May 22/12 - gradient and rhinestones

Hey everyone! I'm really happy about my manicure today! I love the look of rhinestones all clustered together, mosaic-style, and I did try it once. Problem was, all the rhinestones I had used were the same size, so it wasn't possible to really cram them all together, just next to each other. It just didn't have the look I was going for and so, I had to scrap that manicure! I knew I needed some multi-sized rhinestones to create the look I was going for, and luckily Born Pretty Store came through for me! They generously provided me with a couple of goodies, the first of which I want to show you today!

I started off with a gradient base, using a new technique for creating gradients I saw at The Nailasaurus! It worked very nicely, I love the results! I need a little more practice to totally get it down but it wasn't difficult at all and the results are great!

Then, I went to work with my rhinestones! The smallest of these are just teeny tiny! Be careful or these will end up everywhere! The rhinestones come in three sizes, the wheel has four compartments of each size. I arranged them in a crescent shape in the lower left corner of each nail, starting with a large rhinstone, adding a couple medium sized ones, and filling in the spaces and the "tails" with the tiny ones. Bit of topcoat on top and voila!

I'm really happy with how this turned out, I hope you like it too! Check out this product at Born Pretty Store and if you like what you can do with them, grab some! The price is awesome!

Colours used:
Barielle in Blossom
Revlon Top Speed in Electric

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

NOTD Apr 3/12 - Blue dot gradient, Autism Awareness

*EDIT: Just wanted to add a little note here to anyone who happened to see the lovely little note someone left on this on Tumblr... I could let it get me down and make me upset, and to be honest at first I did. People don't realize, or choose not to realize, that when you say something mean and unnecessary online, you're not just saying it to no one - there's another person getting that message. Another human being. I find it sort of incredible (and incredibly disappointing) how easily people take the license to be cruel and pointlessly mean over the internet, simply because it's anonymous. I find that kind of behaviour just as sad in real life, but on the internet it also just comes across as... cowardly.

I do know however, that 99% of people who saw this manicure would see it for what it was meant to be - just a simple manicure that happened to be related, however loosely, to a good cause, a cause I wanted to bring attention to in some small way, and really I only tied this mani into the whole Autism Awareness thing because of Kimber's very moving blog post anyways... she had more to say about it than I ever could and I wanted to say, "I recognized that, I heard that, and I think you're very strong.", basically. That was what mattered and I don't intend to let negativity obscure that. I guess I can just finish up by saying I honestly wish a lot of future happiness for people like that... people tend to like to make those around them feel the way they do. Happy people try to spread happiness and make others happy, and miserable people... well, you get the point. The world would be better off if more people were happier, so if randomly attacking people you don't know a single thing about makes you happy.... carry on I guess.... let's see how well that works out for you.

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I did this mani last night just wanting to try out this dot gradient design, and use one of the new Essence polishes I bought. I realized after I did the mani that because of the colour, it really fits perfectly with the all of the blue Autism Awareness manicures for the month of April that have been all over the polish blogosphere recently. Now, I don't want to pretend that this was pre-planned because that wouldn't be honest - I only noticed the connection afterwards. And there isn't much I can say on the subject except that I agree, there needs to be more awareness about this, and about many, many issues. People just need to be more aware of the world around them in general - it would make this world a better place to live in.

On the subject of Autism specifically, I want to point you to this great manicure and touching story that Kimber of Kimber's Lacquer Korner posted today, about her daughter who is on the Autism Spectrum. If anything about my manicure even unintentionally causes someone to be more aware and informed about Autism, then that's fantastic - but this woman has a true purpose and a true connection to the disorder and you should all read her story (and check out her awesome mani!).

Anyways, without further ado this is my accidental Autism awareness manicure that I created last night. I've been wanting to try a gradient manicure with polka dots for a while - simple, but striking design.

Colours used:
Essence in Walk on Air
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White
(in between colours on the gradient were mixtures of the two polishes)

A Very Merry NOTD, with rhinestones!!

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! It's a quiet one for me this year, most of my family visiting will be next month due to work restrictions on my time right now - but that gave me time to do a nice mani tonight!

I wanted something that was still in the holiday spirit but wouldn't be too Christmassy and immediately out of date come Boxing Day! So I settled on a mixed metal glitter mani with rhinestones!!

First, the pics:

I love how these turned out!! They look festive but I would totally wear them any time of the year. Funny enough, taking these pics I learned a great way to take indoor pictures of my nails - I always had trouble taking indoor pics in macro mode because everything would turn so yellow in the picture! But for these, I used my camera's "food" picture setting! LOL So weird but hey, it works! Now I don't have to wait for a sunny day (not many of those this time of year) to take outdoor pictures.

The rhinestones were generously sent to me for review by Born Pretty Store. There are 12 colours included and they come in a great little case that lets you turn the window to get at whichever colour you need. I'm very excited to finally have my hands on some of these and I can't wait to do more manis with them, especially with having so many colour options! Definitely try these out if you want a good variety of rhinestones, it's less than $4 for the package and they ship worldwide! See them here!

NOTD Dec 2/11

This look was inspired by the sunrise! Not that I'm really ever up early enough to see it... but I guess that's why I can live through it vicariously via my nails! Complete with a glittery topcoat because really, glitter improves almost everything!

I've been really noticing certain aspects of my nail polish skills improving lately, and for me the biggest one is actually one of the simplest - I can finally paint my nails and get pretty much no nail polish on the cuticles or off the sides of my nails onto my fingers! It is so satisfying to finally be able to paint your nails and not spend just as much time cleaning it up afterwards (or living with the messy nails if you were lazy like I sometimes(usually) was). And this only transpired after about four months of painting my nails 2-3 times a week, so I guess with this kind of thing practice really does make perfect!

NOTD Nov 29/11

I am seriously in LOVE with this mani! It's a four colour sponged base with black leopard on top. I really love how it turned out and I can't stop checking it out on my nails!

It was partly inspired by Rebecca over at Rebecca Likes Nails, and her watercolour nails with leopard. It got me wanting to do something like that, and then the other night I was watching The Big Bang Theory and Penny was wearing this shirt:

And that just cinched it! This is a photo of my TV, I actually paused the show to grab my camera and snap a picture (my boyfriend definitely rolled his eyes at this!).

So last night I painted my nails lavender, and then sponged on baby blue, light seafoam green and light pink and then used a nail art pen to draw on the leopard print and voila!

Hope you enjoy as much as I do! <3

NOTD and FOTD Nov 19/11

Double feature today!! I needed a quick mani to do last night because my last one was totally chipped and I was short on time! So I did a little glitter gradient! A baby blue with a yellow-gold glitter fade - over the blue it turned out to have a bit of a green cast to it!

Then my FOTD! Well, eye in this case - I couldn't get a good shot of my whole face! I went for silver and grey on the lids and then a navy blue around the lashline for something a little different! I really like this look, I'm totally doing it again! I love navy on the eyes but I can never seem to find ways to wear it - til now!

NOTD Sep 1/11

September already!! Holy cow! Hard to believe! I'm clinging to summer with a bright, sparkly nail look like this! Another go with a glitter gradient, this time purple on the tips (although it pretty much disappeared under the glitter) with Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Rockstar pink, a magenta and blue glitter, sponged over in a gradient! I also added a little blue star to the ring finger with a bit of the glitter over it just for a little something extra, I felt like it needed something!

With flash to really show off the sparkly-pretties!

NOTD Aug 18/11 and steps on how to do it!

Hey guys! I am really happy with this glitter gradient mani I just did tonight, partly because I think it looks great but also partly because it was so freakin' easy! This mani could seriously not be more goof-proof! I didn't take step by step pics, but I'm going to post the steps to getting this mani below the pic - it's seriously so easy you don't really need pictures!

My camera didn't even really capture the full glory of it... I may try and take another picture of it tomorrow in daylight to see if it captures better there! New picture added!

Here are the steps to getting this!

Products used:

• Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Black Out
• Nicole by OPI in Nicole's Nickel

Steps:

1. Prep nails with a base coat, let dry.
2. Place french manicure guides or a piece of tape to leave about 1/4 or a 1/3 of your tip at the top (depending on how long your nails are - the longer your nails, the bigger the tip can be, but even if your nails are shorter you don't want to have a skinny teeny little tip)
3. Paint the tips black, pull off the tape! Don't worry if the line isn't totally straight or looks a little jagged, that's fine!
4. Let it dry - I just painted a coat of quick-dry top coat over the tips to speed this up.
5. Take a latex (or non-latex!) makeup sponge and rip the edge so it's a little jagged. Dip this in a glitter polish that has silver glitter and a semi-opaque grey/black base (like Nicole's Nickel!) and sponge it on just over the black tips to start.
6. Then go back and get a little more of the glitter polish on your sponge, and this time dab it so it overlaps not only the black tips but a little bit further down on your nail. This will create a gorgeous gradient effect!
7. Optional step - if you want the gradient to be a little more dramatic, after you apply the glitter polish, go back with the sponge in a tiny bit of the plain black polish, and veeery lightly dab that on the very tips of the nails (I'm talking the last millimetre here!) and dab the sponge several times to blend it out well.
8. Add some top coat to seal it and voila! Gorgeous glitter gradient! You could definitely try this out with other colours too for a different look! Enjoy!

Thanks for reading lovelies! :)

NOTD July 12/11

Sorry for the no updates lately! Work's been keeping me busy and wanting to do literally NOTHING on my down time!! But I have found some time to do my nails! Another one I got the idea for from a Tumblr blog (the manicure inspiration folder on my computer is growing at an alarming rate!) for some flowers on a black background!! I think I still need to get the hang of scaling patterns to the size of my nails... I didn't intend it to be this big or have the flowers overlap! But I still like how it turned out!