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Monday 12 May 2014

MoYou London Stamping Challenge: OOTD

I guess I'm not down with the kids because I had to google what OOTD meant. Apparently it means Outfit of the Day, lol. I bought this cute new dress from Tommy and thought it would be great to pair with one of my fun necklaces.


I started with a base of Zoya Purity on my thumb and ring finger and an unnamed Color Club on my other three fingers. I then used the Purity to stamp on the flowers using MoYou Pro Plate 06. The stripes were added using a blue striping brush.


I added some rhinestones to the centre of the flowers and an HK Girl Glisten and Glow top coat to make it super shiny.

I am so happy with how this turned out! I think it matches the outfit and necklace perfectly and looks so pretty. In love!

Happy painting friends!

Saturday 10 May 2014

MoYou Stamping Challenge: Geometric

I saw a polish in my collection the other day that I hadn't noticed (strange I know!) by Sally Hansen Complete Manicure called Back to the Fuchsia. How did I never notice this before?! The name is fantastic! I knew I had to use it.


I used that as my base and then used one of my MoYou plates (from the Artist collection) to stamp in black on three of my nails.


I got to have some sparkle so I completed my look with a silver glitter and some teardrop rhinestones.


I love how rockin' these turned out! So great!

Happy painting friends!

Friday 9 May 2014

MoYou London Stamping Challenge: Superhero

When you think of superhero you probably have pictures of Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Thor, etc, etc. But when I think of superhero, I think of the people who are truly inspiring and who fight against obstacles that are placed before them. One such superhero is one of my former colleagues, Jeanne. She was diagnosed with breast cancer five years ago and has been fighting her hardest ever since. I've never seen anything but a smile on her face and her faith is both amazing and inspirational. She touches the hearts of everyone she comes into contact with and I knew I wanted to do a beautiful design for this very beautiful person.


I started off with Pure Ice Outrageous on four of my fingers and Zoya Purity on the ring finger. The dots were just done with the opposite colour and a medium dotting tool. The breast cancer awareness ribbon was from the OPI breast cancer set that came out last year and then I stamped on the hearts using Zoya Purity and MoYou's Princess Plate 14.


I wanted to have the heart image in there as Jeanne has such a big heart and I feel like this one is perfect as it looks like it's swelling up with love.

I attended a fundraiser for Jeanne last night and if you'd like to contribute to this amazing woman's recovery, you can donate at http://tinyurl.com/forjeanne-paypal.

I hope you enjoyed this very special tribute to a very special person.

Happy painting friends!

Wednesday 7 May 2014

MoYou London Stamping Challenge: Red

Today's prompt was "Red" which leaves an infinite number of possibilities! I decided to keep it pretty simple and just used one stamp from the Princess Collection.


I started with two coats of OPI Glints of Glinda which is just a sheer nude. I then used Nicole by OPI Boys'n'Berry to do the stamping. I topped it off with a french using a Zoya red (I think it was Carrieann).

Add some rhinestones (because who doesn't love a bit of bling) and call it a day!

Happy painting friends!

Monday 5 May 2014

MoYou London Stamping Challenge: London

I bought the London version of MoYou's Tourist Collection (plate 05) for a few reasons. 1) My husband is from England 2) I lived in England for three years 3) it's super cool!

Boy did it come in handy for today's look!! The prompt was London for today's stamping challenge and of course I had to use this plate!


I really dig how this turned out but holy cow was it a struggle! I redid the red finger about five times. It started as a London bus (but my finger wasn't big enough), then it was "keep calm and carry on" (but I kept smushing the words too much and after three attempts I had enough) and finally I chose the Tube map. I liked how the routes extended onto my finger so I didn't clean that part up.

I wanted to come up with something more innovative than what I did but I've had a headache all day so of course nothing was cooperating!

Happy painting friends!

MoYou Londong Stamping Challenge: Fanta-sea

So yesterday's theme was fantasy but I didn't really have anything that spoke to me so I went with fanta-sea and decided to use some of my stamps from the Sailor Collection. (I also love a good play on words!)

I started with Rimmel Mint-licious and then did a gradient with that and China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise to give that very Caribbean Sea feel.


I then used two images from the MoYou Sailor Collection plate 07. For the waves, I used the Rimmel colour and white to give a bit of a contrast and then just used white for the fish.


I think this is really beautiful and I'm absolutely in love with the colours. It's a very subtle look.

I need to do something about that hangnail on my index finger though, lol.

Happy painting friends!

Sunday 4 May 2014

MoYou London Stamping Challenge: Animal Print

I've started another challenge! This one is involving my wonderful MoYou stamping plates and has a different theme for each day of May. MoYou itself is running the challenge and the prize is 6 new stamping plates!

I missed the first two days as I didn't know it was going on but I will hopefully be able to do most days now.

Yesterday's theme was animal print. I don't have any traditional "animal print" stamps (like leopard, zebra, etc) so I decided to pick my ladybug one from the Princess Collection (plate 14)


I started with an unnamed Color Club red and then added the black dots with a dotting tool and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out. I then stamped on the ladybugs with the same black polish. I think it looks so cute!

This challenge is taking place on Instagram and you can see all the looks if you search under #moyou10k. You can also follow me @thenailglossary.

My pics on Instagram are not the best as I'm using my phone and I know there must be a way to upload photos you take with a better camera but I haven't figured that out yet. (If anyone has any tips, I'd love to hear them!!)

Stay tuned for more stamping days.

Happy painting friends!

Wednesday 30 April 2014

Neon Leopard

Along with my cool new nail plates my MIL also brought me some new Barry M polishes. I really like Barry M but they aren't available in Canada (at least not on the west coast). She got me nine polishes and I'm featuring two of them here Key Lime and Mango.


I started with a base of Mango on all nails except the ring finger which has Key Lime. I then blobbed on the alternate colour in different sizes for the start of the leopard print. I then used my black nail art pen to add the accents to the leopard print.



I love love love how this turned out! It's so bright and fun. Maybe not entirely office appropriate but definitely cool for a fun night out.

Happy painting friends!

Sunday 20 April 2014

Happy Easter!

I had so many epic fails with trying to do yesterday's prompt of "spring flowers" (which were so bad I didn't actually end up posting anything) that I was worried about the last day of the challenge. I was beginning to think I'd lost my nail mojo which does happen on occasion. I then found this picture over at More Nail Polish and I knew I wanted to recreate it as today's prompt was "recreate another's".

Here is my interpretation:


I started with a base of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow and then did a gradient using that, Lacey Lilac and Mint Sorbet. I then coated the gradient using Sephora by OPI Wild About Shimmer.


The bunny ears were done free-hand with nail pens for the white and black and then OPI Pinking of You.



I love this! I think it's super cute and very festive for the day. Glad that I got my inspiration back.

Loved this challenge so a big thank-you to Jessica over at Be Happy and Buy Polish for creating the Facebook group.

Happy painting friends!

Friday 18 April 2014

Pastel Sponge

Day 2 of the challenge brings us to the prompt "pastels". I grabbed a whole bunch of pastel shades and just started painting!


I did 2-coats of the following:

Zoya Gie Gie (pink) on my thumb, Zoya Blu on my index, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow on my middle, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mint Sorbet (green) on my ring and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac on my pinkie.

Once the base coats were dry, I sponged on all the colours over all my nails to give a muted watercolour kind of effect.


I then did a coat of Orly Goin' To the Chapel to give it a kind of pearly effect. I don't know that the pearly effect really came across in the photos but it really looked beautiful. I should have taken a picture in the sun (if only there were sun this time of year, lol!)


Then I chose an image from on of my MoYou plates and stamped it on my pinkie, ring and thumb. I added a couple rhinestones to the remaining two fingers and ended up with something I think is really pretty. I got lots of compliments on these at work.

Haven't started tomorrow's look yet, yikes!

Happy painting friends!

Thursday 17 April 2014

The Great Egg Hunt

Well, it's time once again for a challenge! I loved participating in the Valentine's challenge back in Feb and was sad when I missed the St. Patrick's one in March. I couldn't resist signing up for the Easter one though.

Today's prompt is Easter Eggs. I had this great idea about doing a riff on Ukrainian Easter Eggs but I ran out of time so I came up with this.


I started with two coats of Color Club Evolution and then added all the details using my nail art pens.


I then used Sally Hansen Sugar Shimmer Sugar Cloud to give it a bit of a shimmer.


I don't know that I'm in love with this design. It's just alright for me. I wish I had more time and could have put out something a lot better. But hey ho, we still have 3 more days of the challenge!

Happy painting friends!



Saturday 12 April 2014

Tea With Kaycie

I love to do my friend Kaycie's nails and today's are no exception. These ones are featuring my new MoYou Nail Stamping Plates which my dear mother in law got me for Christmas. Kaycie chose these cute teapots and teacups from the traveler collection.


I started with a base of L'Oreal Sweet Chiffon and then stamped on the teapots and teacups with Sally Hansen White On.


 I always like a bit of bling so I added on some accent rhinestones and put a shimmery topcoat (sorry don't remember which one) on a few of the nails.

I must say that I am IN LOVE with my MoYou Nail Plates! I use them all time. You can check out a lot more of my designs on my Instagram account; just search for @thenailglossary and you can see my daily looks.

Happy painting friends!

Sunday 30 March 2014

Silver Shoes

I deeply apologize for not blogging for a long time. Bad blogger!! <<hangs head in shame>>

Enough shame; on to the blogging!

I have a pair of silver ballet flats that I wore to my sister-in-law's wedding and absolutely love. They are nice and blingy without being over the top. I thought I would do a simple look that emulates them.


The silver colour is Zoya Seraphina which is a really soft beautiful shade. I then added some simple silver rhinestones that I got at a craft store.


Here is the look with the shoes. I think they match pretty well. The stones on the shoes are more opaque but it's not like you'd be holding your nails next to your shoes all day!


It was simple to do, really quick and I think it turned out really nicely.

I like matching my nails to an element of my outfit. Makes me feel like I'm at least semi put together, lol.

Again, sorry for my absence!

Happy painting friends!

Sunday 23 February 2014

Where Have I Been?!

I haven't posted for well over a week which is really strange for me but I'm trying new things. Last week I signed up for an Instagram account and I've been trying to post on there this past week. If you aren't following me on Instagram you can find me under thenailglossary.

But don't worry! I haven't given up blogging. I just wanted to try something new and going forward I'm sure I'll do both. Here's what I have for you today:


These are two colours by Butter London. The base colour is called Slapper and the middle stripe is called Knackered. I got these two minis for $10!


I then did an accent stripe of different coloured green and silver rhinestones.

Knackered and Slapper
I love Butter London's funny British names. It makes me remember my time living in England and smile. And I love these colours! So much fun.

As I write this it is snowing pretty hard! What happened to our sun?! Bring on the spring!

Happy painting friends!

Friday 14 February 2014

Recreate Another's-Valentine's Week Challenge

Happy Valentine's Day. It's the last day of the challenge!! Oh my gosh I've really enjoyed this. It's been great having a focus for a week.

Day 5-Freestyle/Recreate Another's

Today's prompt was either doing your own design or recreating one that someone had done during the challenge. I really wanted to do a riff on what someone else had done since there have been so many great designs this week. I chose to take inspiration from Valerie Wilson at Nail Artsy. She did a purple background with a simple and beautiful rose design on it.

Here's my take:

without flash

I started with a base of Zoya Belinda which is an absolutely gorgeous deep purple. I then added the rosettes with a nail art pen.


I then added a layer of deborah lippmann Diamonds and Pearls which is just a beautiful shimmery overlay.

with flash

I then blinged the heck out of my ring finger (can you see that the bottom jewel is a heart?).

It's obviously not exactly like Valerie's but I was definitely inspired by her design.

I'm so glad I took part in this challenge. There are much longer challenges which I hope to be a part of but I know I'll have to plan it a bit better!!

Happy painting friends!



Thursday 13 February 2014

Hearts-Valentine's Week Challenge

I had an epic fail with the first manicure I tried to do with this theme. I think it'll make my blooper reel at the end of the year!

Day 4- Hearts

What says Valentine's Day more than Hearts? There are so many beautiful things you can do around this theme and I must admit I was overwhelmed with choices. I finally settled on doing a lace effect with hearts in the center.



I started with one coat of deborah lippmann Run Run Rudolph which is officially my new favourite red. It goes on so beautifully and it's only one coat! J'adore!!


I then went in with a black nail pen and did the lace detail. I did a similar design in white and blue which you can view in my Blasts from the Past post.

with matte top coat


It's not as clean as I would like it to be but I felt a little rushed with this one.

Tomorrow is freestyle or recreate someone else's look. Again, I haven't even started this one! ARGHH, I should have planned a little better.

Happy painting friends!

Wednesday 12 February 2014

Roses-Valentine's Week Challenge

This was possibly my favourite prompt! I knew right away what I wanted to do and couldn't wait to get started on it. It took me awhile to choose my base but I absolutely love how these came out and I think they would be appropriate year round!

Day 3- Roses

I decided that I was going to do something fairly simple but elegant and what says elegant but a French manicure?


I started with a base of three coats of Zoya Jacqueline (cream) and then painted one coat of Orly Goin' to the Chapel over it which gave it a really pretty soft pearlescent look.


I then went in with deborah lippmann Run, run Rudolph (which is technically a Christmas shade I guess) and blobbed on the rose shapes. I love love love this red!


I added in the rose details with a black nail pen and then the leaves are made from piCture pOlish Jealousy. I added Glisten and Glow Top Coat, a bit of bling (rhinestone stickers I got from Michael's) and then called it a day.


I'm in "love"! It turned out exactly how I was hoping, simple and elegant.

Tomorrow's prompt is Hearts and as I write this I haven't completed my look yet. I need some inspiration!!

Happy painting friends!



Tuesday 11 February 2014

Kisses- Valentine's Week Challenge

I love doing this challenge! I was a bit stumped with things at first but I feel like I've hit a stride.

Day 2- Kisses

Today's prompt is Kisses. I must say that I really could only think of lips but I thought I would need to push the boat out a bit. I've wanted to do comic strip nails for awhile and thought I could meld the two.

Here's what I came up with:


I like how these turned out but I wish a couple things were different. The writing on the "Kiss Me" nail is really bothering me and the edges on the lips aren't as smooth as I'd like. But maybe I'm just being picky!



I couldn't do it on both hands so the other one is just white with red polka dots. But I couldn't take it off!

Here are the main polishes I used:


All of the details were done with nail pens.

I'm really looking forward to showing you tomorrow's look. It turned out beautifully (if I do say so myself!).

Happy painting friends!






Monday 10 February 2014

Candy Hearts- Valentine's Week Challenge

I'm participating in a week long challenge involving Valentine's nail art. This is the first ever challenge I've ever taken on and I'm excited! I've wanted to do one for awhile and the thirty day one seems a little daunting so I was super pumped to see Jessica over at Be Happy and Buy Polish start a challenge centered around love.

Day 1- Candy Heart Sayings

I must say that I struggled a bit with this one. I wasn't really sure how to interpret it and my mom started suggesting some different ideas and I went with the "Bee Mine" one she came up with.


I really like how this turned out. I think it looks very cute and feminine. I started with a base of Orly Cotton Candy and then did a gradient with that and Orly Pink Chocolate (don't you love that name!). The hearts, writing and bee were done with nail pens.

Orly Pink Chocolate


I thought we were being really original until I googled some images and realized that people had done things like this before. I'd already finished my design though and liked it so much that I didn't have the "heart" to take it off, lol.

I guess I'll just have to put my thinking cap on and try to "bee" more original next time. Ok, no more puns ;)

Happy painting friends!

Monday 3 February 2014

Nude Leopard

I just can't get enough of the leopard print! It's so easy to do and I think it looks so fun. I started with a base of Zoya Jacqueline which is just a beautiful smooth nude colour. I then went in with a black and red nail pen and added the leopard and stripe detail.


I of course used my trusty new light box to take my photos.



The flash didn't really want to come out to play and I kind of wish I had forced it because these are looking a bit shaded.

Still getting used to the light box but I think with practice I'll get some really good photos.

Happy painting friends!