NOTD March 17/13 - Happy St.Patrick's Day!

Happy St.Patrick's Day everyone! I worked today so I didn't get into any kinds of festivities, but I hope you're all having fun of some kind today!

I looove this mani.. I know I say that a lot, but it's OK to love a lot of things... and I really do love this. It's so simple but it has so much impact. I was an easy mani to do, even the clovers only used a dotting tool and took about 4 seconds each! I think too that this is a good format for other kinds of manis... ie: use red and pink glitter and do the white nail with a heart on it for Valentine's Day... you get the idea!

Anyways, here she is!

The white is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On, the gold I layered under the glitter is Sally Hansen CSM in Gilty Pleasure, and the green I layered under the glitter is Sinful Colors in Envy. The gold glitter is Milani Jewel FX in Gold, and the green glitter is LA Girl Glitter Addict in Purge.

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 Feb 2/13 - simple Valentine's glitter fade

Sometimes simple manis happen because that's what you're in the mood for, and sometimes they happen because you have somewhere to be but then you realize your manicure is looking totally busted and it's time for a new one. And time is short, so you do the quickest thing you can think of! This manicure is the latter! But even if it was rushed, I still really like it. I love the contrast of the really sheer, soft pink and the bright red glitter - I don't think this would look as cool with an opaque pink polish.

The pink is Essence in Sweet as Candy, and the red glitter is LA Girl Glitter Addict in Animate.

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 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 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 Dec 22/12 - Christmas lights!

It's getting close to Christmas and I feel like I didn't even come close to doing all the Christmas manis I wanted to do! I guess some will just have to wait until next year. :)

These ones turned out great and were worth the bit of extra work they took! I think adding sparkles to the lights was a nice touch, it really made them stand out more.

The background colour is Barielle Date Night, if you're curious about any of the other colours just ask in the comments! :)

NOTD Dec 13/12 - Christmas presents

This is one of my favourite Christmas manis so far! Presents had been in my mind for a while but I wasn't sure how I wanted to execute them so I kept putting them off. I finally figured out how I was going to do it, and alternated several holiday appropriate colours and glitters. They are so cute!

The colours I used were Sinful Colors Envy, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On, Sally Hansen CSM in Gilty Pleasure, Nicole by OPI Positive Energy, Essence Glamorous Life, and various striper polishes and glitters. Honestly, too many to list!

NOTD Dec 12/12 - Viridian snowflakes

I love snowflakes for a holiday nail design (if you hadn't already noticed) but I wanted something with a slightly less traditional colour this time.

I chose Illamasqua's Viridian, a gorgeous shimmery deep blue-green shade! See a swatch of it alone here. Then I added white snowflakes with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On, and topped it with a holographic silver shimmer (NYX Advanced Salon Formula in Disco Inferno). Simple but pretty!

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 26/12 - abstract minimalist trees

These nails are kind of inspired by nailside's style! I checked out her tutorial from last year for Christmas tree and it gave me the idea to add rhinestones to this, but I did mine a little different from hers and added even more rhinestones, and less tape lines. :) I like how this turned out! I think it would also look cute with different coloured rhinestones on the tree like different coloured ornaments, but the only rhinestones I had that were small enough were clear ones!

The background is Revlon in Cloud, the trees are Barielle in Date Night, and then the rhinestones and the striping tape I used (which is obviously unseen) are both from Born Pretty Store!

NOTD Nov 25/12 - festive glitter

This one was pretty simple guys! I just layered three different glitters to get one festive glitterbomb mani!

The colours I used were all by LA Girl - the gold is Live on Stage (from the Rock Star line), the red is Animate, and the green is Purge (the last two both from the Glitter Addict line).

These looked like sparkly little Christmas ornaments on my hands and people kept commenting on them at work! They looked like they were one glitter polish, so this has me of a mind to try layering more glitters to see what combos I get!

NOTD Nov 20/12 - peppermint swirl

Do you ever kind of look up, look around, and go, "Holy Crap! It's late November? Wasn't it just summer like, last week?" I don't just mean weather wise... I mean it was pretty mild through most of September and even October... but I feel like this fall so far has gone by extremely quickly and all of a sudden, BAM, it's almost the end of the year! Crazy!

Anyways, continuing with the spirit of the approaching Christmas (and assorted other holidays) season I have another festive manicure! This one is inspired by peppermint candies!

This may look upon first glance like a water marble, but in fact since I totally refuse to subject myself to the what seems to be torturous process of water marbling, I took a different route with this. I painted my nails first with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On, and then took a miscellaneous red striper polish and painted on curved diagonal lines that tapered at one end.

I did each nail one at a time so the polish wouldn't dry before I got back to it, and took a needle and dragged in through the lines, going first one direction and then the next time in the other. Then I topped each nail with NYX Advanced Salon Formula in Disco Inferno for a bit of glittery fun! I loved these and they seemed to be real eye catchers, I got lots of compliments on them!

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.

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 Oct 23/12 - vampire fangs and blood!

Got another really Halloween themed one here! I looove how this turned out! The fangs were actually a lot easier than I thought they would be, but I still didn't want to attempt it with my left hand as I was feeling lazy, so my right hand is stripes in the same colours! I like how it all looks together!

I'll probably have time to fit in one more manicure before Halloween, and I'm going as a devil (but in black instead of red) for a Halloween party this weekend so it has to work with that costume. I'm thinking something like a really vampy black and shimmery red gradient mani. Can't wait!

Anyone else trying to work their nail art in to their costume this year?

NOTD Oct 18/12 - pumpkin tips

More Halloween manicure goodness! I really loved CutePolish's apple manicure which I recreated last month, and it got a great response. Not surprising because it's such an adorable design!

I was brainstorming for Halloween mani ideas, and it occured to me how perfect that manicure was for adapting to Halloween! Instead of apples, I drew pumpkins! The ones on my ring fingers have made it to the jack o' lantern phase, but the rest are just plain and simple gourds. :)

I love how these look, they're so cute and perfect for the season! Hope you enjoy them too!

For the pumpkins I used Cherimoya Mango and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Sunkissed, and for the highlights I mixed a bit of white in with Mango. Then I drew the stems with Revlon Chocolate Truffle and the vines with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Green With Envy, and black for the jack o' lantern details!

NOTD Oct 10/12 - halloween dottyness

Abstract designs can be a lot of fun, but they're kind of a pain to come up with a name for! I wanted to start getting into some Halloween-y type designs, and when I did this I only had time for something quick so I went with something abstract in Halloween colours of orange, black and white! When in doubt, pull out your dotting tools!

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!)