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Tuesday 31 December 2013

Happy 2014!

Happy New Years everyone! I wanted to do something blingy on my nails for the occasion and I'm super happy with the results.



I started with a base of Rimmel Hot Black to Go. Not my favourite black but it was the first one I found ( I can't wait to get my new Ikea Helmer and get organized!)


I then added a half-moon of a england King Arthur and then added a no-name silver glitter from Walmart. I added some silver rhinestones around the edge of the half-moon and then coated the whole thing (twice!) with Seche Vite.

I think it looks elegant and super fab :)

What do you think? Does it say New Years to you?

Happy painting friends and a very very happy New Year to you and yours!

Monday 30 December 2013

Zoya Zenith Collection Glitter Gradient

As I said in yesterday's post I received 15 new Zoya polishes for Christmas. 5 of those polishes are the new Zenith Collection of which I featured Dream yesterday. Today I have two more from the collection for you. Zoya Seraphina (a really pretty light silver) and Mosheen (a light blue glitter topper).

I decided to do a glitter gradient using these two polishes and I was very pleased with the result.


The Mosheen gives a very subtle blue gradient to the silver.


I didn't have a sponge (which is usually what I would use to do a glitter gradient) so I did a technique that I read on a blog and I will have to try to find out which one that was. Basically you start by painting the glitter topper over 2/3 of the nail. The next coat you paint a little less of the nail and the last coat you just paint the tip. If your base is sheer enough, it will give a really cool gradiation.

I could have used with some cleanup on this look! I'm using my new camera now and it is both a blessing and a curse. It gets really close up which is great for detail but it shows off every mistake you make, lol.

So far I love love love the Zoya Zenith Collection. All the colours are so pretty! If you are in Canada, you can order Zoya through Nail Polish Canada. If you live in the States, you can order it directly from Zoya.

Happy painting friends!

Sunday 29 December 2013

How Many New Polishes?! (Zoya Dream Swatch)

My sis in law asked me today how many polishes I got for Christmas so I did a quick count and found I got 85 new polishes! Crazy! I think about 35 of them are minis but that's still a lot of polish. I ain't complaining though :)

It's going to take me awhile to get through all of these but I've already made a good crack at it and I'll be featuring some nail art with my new colours.

Today however is just a swatch of a new Zoya I got. (Santa was kind to me and got me 15 new Zoyas!)

This is Zoya Dream and it is an absolute dream!!


This is two coats and the formula is everything I have come to expect from Zoya. It goes on amazingly well and I think it looks like the late evening sky. It has such depth and is just amazingly pretty.


It's so gorgeous I didn't want to cover it! I imagine I will use this polish a lot in nail art though.

Happy painting friends!

Friday 27 December 2013

Snowy Windows

It's been a couple days since I've posted so I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Mine was filled with good food, family and of course, nail polish! Santa was very good to me on that front and I have many a new colour to try out.

I'm showing you a design today that I actually did before Christmas but is rather appropriate for the season.


I started with a base of Rimmel Mintlicious and then used my nail pens to draw on the trees, window panes, and snow.


This is my right hand so my hand poses are a bit awkward! I'm trying to get more adept with both doing nail art on my right hand and photographing it.

I actually took this design straight from Sincerely Stephanie so click on the link if you want to see her original design.

I can't wait to show you all my new polishes so stay tuned for that. AND I got a new camera and I'm super excited to get some good nail photos up!

Happy painting friends!

Tuesday 24 December 2013

Christmas Eve is Here

I love Christmas Eve! I love sitting around as a family with all the lights off except for the Christmas tree and just chatting. It's one of my favourite times of the year. This year is extra special as my brother and his family are able to join us for the first time in a few years.


This evening always brings to mind a fireplace with stockings hung and a plate full of cookies for Santa.

I did my fireplace using a whole multitude of colours so if you'd like to know a specific colour, let me know.


I should have taken a picture less angled as it would look more like a fireplace if it was straight on but I didn't really notice until I was editing these.

I hope everyone has a wonderful evening and a Merry Christmas Eve!

Happy painting friends!

Monday 23 December 2013

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

Well tomorrow is the night that Santa finally comes and so of course I had to do some Santa nail art. I actually did these a while ago but I knew I wanted to post them closer to Christmas day.


I started with two coats of Zoya Delilah and then painted on the Santa suit details using nail pens.



Although I'm only posting my left hand, I did do the design on both hands. It's just so hard to take pictures of my right hand!

I love how Christmassy this design is and I ended up wearing it for a few days I liked it so much!

Happy painting friends!

Sunday 22 December 2013

Christmas Pudding

I saw this super cute design on One Nail to Rule Them All of Christmas puddings and knew I just had to try it myself!


How cute are these?! I love them and they were easy to do. I started with a base of Jessica Brown Sugar (I think it was two coats). I then added on the icing and holly with nail pens.



The only thing with these that I'm not super happy about is that the edge where the polish meets the cuticle is not very neat. My clean up was not amazing but it's all about practice!!

Happy painting friends!

Saturday 21 December 2013

Christmas Glitter Polka Dots

I wanted to do something a bit glam for the season and since I've been trying to do both hands (as only one hand done is weird when you're in public) I needed something that was reasonably easy. Dotting is a beautiful pattern and rather easy to do on both hands.


I started with a base of Sally Hansen Diamonds which is a beautiful gold shimmer. I then went in with my dotting tools and did various sizes of Zoya Delilah (red), Tomoko (gold) and an unnamed Color Club green.



These pictures are of my ever elusive right hand! Let me tell you how hard it is to take pictures using your left hand. I need to practice apparently.

Happy painting friends!

Friday 20 December 2013

Putting Presents Under the Tree

Of course I needed to do some presents! Christmas for me is all about family but I must admit that I do get excited about all those fancy wrapped packages under the tree :)


I started with a base of Sephora by OPI Curve-aceous (gotta love that red!) and then added in all the accents (bows, ribbon, tree, star) using nail pens.



I think these are pretty but I don't know that they are super "original" and they are very plain compared to what my mom does with her wrapping.

Next year when I do present nail art I will have to make them all different.

Happy painting friends!

Wednesday 18 December 2013

Light Me Up

Living in an apartment is not very conducive to having outside lights. My husband has always had a fantasy of having a National Lampoon's type Christmas light display, lol. Since we can't have them where we live, I thought I would put them on my nails.


I started with a base of Essie Bikini So Teeny (one of my favourite light blues). I then went in with a whole load of nail pens and drew in the Christmas lights.



I then took Sally Hansen White On and sponged it at the base to look like snow (not sure how successful this was).

Here are some pics in natural light:



I got the inspiration from the look the Nailasaurus did here but I wanted to make it look more like the snow was on top of the lights. Unfortunately I was a bit too heavy handed and I think I covered up the lights a bit too much. Oops :)

Happy painting friends!

Monday 16 December 2013

Christmas Leopard

I love me some leopard and so of course I had to do some Christmas themed ones! I stared with a base of Sephora by OPI Curve-aceous (red) and Nails Inc. Bruton Mews on the accent nail.


I then dabbed on the opposite colour for the leopard spots. The above picture is taken in front of my Christmas tree :)


I then used a copper nail pen and outlined the spots.

Here are some pics outdoors:




This may be one of my favourite leopards! I love how versatile animal prints are. I think this would look good with a gold stud at the base of the nail.

Happy painting friends!

Friday 13 December 2013

Santa Hats

This really cool image has been floating around the internet so I thought I would duplicate it on my nails. I'm not sure where the original idea came from but it's so cute! (EDIT: Just found out the original idea came from a very talented Youtuber named keshiaLilly, click on her name to be taken to her tutorial video. I did mine a bit differently as I used nail pens but the effect is the same.)


This look is actually reasonably easy to achieve. I started with Sally Hansen Diamonds and then added a Sephora by OPI red called Curve-aceous. I then did the black and white details with nail art pens.



I love these and have gotten lots of positive feedback about them. Unfortunately you can see a bit of the stain that remains on my nail from a previous nail polish. You can't see it so well in person but it's much more noticeable in the photos. Just shows you that you need to have a really good base coat! I had one on at the time it was stained but it wasn't "strong" enough. Yikes!

Happy painting friends!

Thursday 12 December 2013

Warm Up with a Cup of Cheer

I love getting inspiration from all over and today's nails are inspired by a picture of one of my friends, Nikki, who recently visited the German Christmas Market here in Vancouver. If you are ever so fortunate as to meet Nikki, you would find her to be one cool lady indeed!

Here is the pic I took inspiration from:


And here is the nail art that came from it:


I started with a base of Zoya Sailor  on all of my nails to replicate her coat and then added polka dots using a dotting pen and Revlon Foxy (dark brown) and an unnamed beige by LA Color Craze for a rather loose interpretation of the fur around her collar.


My first pic is in natural light and the second pic is taken indoors.


This pic is also in natural light. For the cup I used an unnamed red in my collection and some nail art pens for the details. I'm not sure what exactly is in the cup ;)

Nikki liked it a lot! (I think, lol)

Happy painting friends!

Wednesday 11 December 2013

A Little Bit Holly

Being back at work has sure made me behind in blogging! I have definitely not been on top of it like I usually am but I still haven't missed a day! I wanted to do some nail art for my friend Holly and what better to do than some holly :)


I started with a base of Orly Moonlit Madness (red) and then did a diagonal stripe of Zoya Tomoko (gold). I then took the Orly and dotted on the berries followed by putting the leaves and gold accents on with nail pens.


I really like how these turned out but they weren't what I pictured in my mind lol. Isn't that always the way?


Apparently I applied the top coat (Seche Vite) rather poorly as I had uneven lines near the cuticle. Oh well, it's a learning process!

Happy painting friends!

Tuesday 10 December 2013

In a Galaxy Far Far Away...Called Vernon!

I'm going to take a break from the Christmas designs I've been doing to show you the last nail art I did for my friend Carrie when I was visiting her in Vernon. I love the galaxy design and since she is a scientist (biology not astronomy though) I thought I would do it for her.


She guessed what is was right away which made me very happy :)


I started with a base of Sally Hansen Black Out and then sponged on a load of colours mostly from Orly and Essie.



I then went in with one of my nail pens and drew in little stars. The best thing is that as I am typing this I have Songza on and the Imperial March from Star Wars has come on. So perfect!

The galaxy mani is really quite easy to do. You just need to layer colours with a sponge. I usually start with dark and go lighter to build up the colour.

Thanks Carrie for the use of your nails :)

Happy painting friends!

Monday 9 December 2013

Christmas Foil

Today was my first day back at work so I apologize that this post is a bit late. I did this manicure a while ago but as it's Christmas colours I wanted to put it up. This is the same as my tape tutorial that I posted a few weeks ago but with different colours.


I started with a base of a Color Club silver and when that was totally dry I used scotch tape and painted off sections using Orly Moonlight Madness (red), China Glaze Outta Bounds (Green) and Ciate Ladylike Luxe (gold).



Looking at these photos I am cringing a bit as I should have paid better attention to my clean up! I think if I redid this mani I would choose a different gold as the Ciate came across a bit yellow against the silver.

Happy painting friends!