Christmas Nails #4

Good morning dear readers!!  4 MORE SLEEPS!!  There is a present under the tree for me that I am DYING to open!  It's from Tyler and he keeps taunting me with it, so I can't wait to tear into it Christmas morning :)

I have another Christmas mani for you this morning, let's check it out!

Swatch-It-Up-Saturday Nov 30

Evening!  I almost forgot to post this today!  Well, here we are on the last day of November, the Christmas season will start in full swing tomorrow, and I will be able to plug my Christmas lights in :D  YAY!  Tyler and I put the outside lights up a few weekends ago, taking advantage of a warm day, but I haven't been "allowed" to turn them on until December 1st.

It's Swatch-It-Up-Saturday and I have a LOT of catching up to do.  This is going to be a picture-heavy post, so let's get right to it.

Late Hallowe'en Night Nails

Hey everybody!!  I'M BACK!!  I have most of the big details, like vendors, booked for the wedding, and I think I am safe to come back to blogging on a fairly regular basis :D

Let's get right to the nails, and then I will catch you up on everything I have been up to for the last month-ish.

Elixir Lacquers A Mermaid's Tale

All polishes are purchased with my own money unless stated otherwise.

Hello again, I thought I would throw in a nail swatch today as well!  I have a couple for backup and although you are probably still oogling the Nail Swatch Stick Display post, here's something else for when you come out of your trance ;)

This is Elixir Lacquers A Mermaid's Tale.  I know I have swatched this on here a while ago, but when I was looking at the Elixir Lacquers storefront, I noticed that Nicole had put my swatch pictures in for A Mermaid's Tale and I actually cringed, lol!  I knew I could take better pictures of it if I redid them, so I did.  Wanna see the original swatch - click here (please don't laugh too hard ;) ).

Elixir Lacquers Blue Coat

All polishes are purchased with my own money unless stated otherwise.

Good morning!  It's such a beautiful day out today, looks like Spring has descended upon us in South-Central Ontario.  Most of you are probably all "YAY!  FINALLY!"  Fine, you guys can have your summer, but I want my winter in November this year! ;)

Today's post is a sister polish to Elixir Lacquers Smokey Coat ... Elixir Lacquers Blue Coat!

Elixir Lacquers Elixiversary

Good afternoon peeps!  It's Friday, and you know what that means!!!  It's the WEEKEND!!! :D  I slept in this morning as I didn't work today and it was so nice - this past week after the time change has whooped mah butt!!  But I am much better now :)  Tyler and I are going to see the movie The Call tonight, with Halle Berry, it looks like a good suspense movie :D

In celebration of Elixir Lacquers 1 year in business anniversary, Nicole (also from Nail Polish Wars) released a polish for the occasion, and it is called Elixiversary.  This polish was released in batches, and if you haven't yet, make sure to get your bottle this tomorrow as it will be the last release, and then it will be gone FOREVER!  Here is the link to the listing for it.  The listing will be "active" at 1:00pm EST Saturday, March 16, 2013.  Only 25 bottles will be available!

Elixir Lacquers Smokey Coat

Good evening my lovely ladies!  Sorry I didn't get a post up yesterday, I had my picture and everything but just didn't have the drive to do it :(

I thought I would do a swatch post on Elixir Lacquers Smokey Coat that I used for the base colour of my Galaxy Nails for Day 1 the other day.

February Nail Art Challenge Day 1

Good morning my loves, and welcome to Day 1 of my February Nail Art Challenge!!  I can't wait to get started on this Challenge, there are so many participants this time 'round, there are going to be SO many different designs to look at! :D

Day 1 is Galaxy Nails!  Galaxy Nails are one of my favourite forms of nail art because it looks different every time, and it's such "large scale design" on a small canvas :)

I have been intrigued with space, and all things astrology since taking the "fill in" course at the end of my grade 9 science class.  They used it as a "just in case there aren't enough snow days" unit to fill in the last couple weeks of the semester, but I would have rather taken astrology than biology ;)

Sapphire Dreams & Wynter Wonders

Hellllloooooo ladies!  As most of you who are on Facebook frequently probably already know, I have discovered 100% acetone for polish and glitter removal.  *makes Heavenly sounds and shines a spotlight on the bottle of acetone*

So, because of this, I have overcome my love/hate relationship with glitter polish and it is pure love now!  And to prove it, I have 2 coats of a shimmer polish with 2 coats of a loaded glitter polish, topped with a heavy coat of top coat!

Let's jump in, shall we??  First off, a warning - this is picture heavy, I couldn't narrow it down any more than what I've got here!

Isn't it PRETTY?!?!?!  *gushes*  I am completely in love with this!  And to top it off, I'm not sitting in a corner, rocking back and forth because I'm terrified of the thought of removing this!  I'M CURED!!!

So what is it??  This look is 2 coats of Ninja Polish Sapphire Dreams (lovingly named by Amber over at And Then There Was Polish) which is a blue shimmer polish (swatch to come tomorrow) that reminds me of a shiny new car, topped with Elixir Lacquers Wynter Wonders which contains holographic micro glitter and small squares and lavender hex glitters, both from the holiday collections :)

It's a good thing the sun isn't very bright on my way to work because it could be tricky driving with this masterpiece in the bright sunlight... like a moth to a flame :D

So where can you get these??  Ninja Polish polishes can be purchased here and Elixir Lacquers can be purchased here.  Sometimes the Ninja Polish polishes are a little tricky to get a hold of, but you can sign up for certain polishes so you are e-mailed when the polish you want is restocked :D

So I know this isn't overly Christmas-y, but I still consider it a Christmas mani because the look was achieved using only Holiday collection polishes :D

Are you a glitterholic or glitterphobic??

Go Pink Wednesday October 17

Happy Hump Day Polishers!! :D  I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!  Me.. I'm glad tomorrow is Thursday, my last day of work for the week, and I get to spend the weekend with Tyler and Owen, and Tyler's mom is having an in-home Miche Bag party, so I will likely be purse shopping Saturday night :D  (Just a quick explanation -- Miche Bag is a purse company that sells purses that you can swap the outside of it and keep the inside the same so you don't have to move all your stuff to a new purse every time you want a new look!  Check out their websites for more information -- American and Canadian.  I have the Classic Bag with 14 different shells, you can see them all on my Pinterest Board!)

Today is another edition of Go Pink Wednesday hosted by Finger Painting Fingers and I decided to go with one of my favourite indie brands and polishes from her shop.

Here we ave a simple combination of 3 coats of Elixir Lacquers Tease, a stunning pink shimmer that shifts from pink to purple to blue (sorry for the low quality.. the sun sets at about 7 here in Ontario so by the time I get home and polished it's dark out!), and Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in white to create the dots.  Tease is a seriously distracting polish, so do not wear while operating heavy machinery ;)

This manicure is so super easy, and can be accomplished even if you don't have a nail art pen (they are a little pricey at $8.99/ea, I only have one) -- use a toothpick dipped in polish to create dots in any polish colour!  I usually grab a piece of tin foil (I have one stashed for nail art so I don't waste foil every time), put a blob of polish on it, dip my toothpick in and dot away! :D  Easy, and anyone can do it!

If you want to check out Elixir Lacquers polish, go to her shop and see what she has to offer!  Every polish I have bought from her has been amazing!

Elixir Lacquers Lov-a-Bully Swatches

This is a second post for today, mostly because I couldn't wait until early next week to post it, I wanted to share it with you RIGHT NOW!!! :D :D

As many of you know, Elixir Lacquers is on of my ultimate favourite indie polishes.  And last weekend I posted about the nail haul I got for her new Lov-a-Bully collection.  This is my first and so far only full collection of polish I have purchased in both indie and store brands.  That's how excited I was for it :D

I was planning to do swatching this weekend, but with the cooler weather here now, and some snow last night, my nails are becoming brittle, and it's only mid-October.  I still have another 6 months of colder weather on the way, so I may be sporting shorter nails during the winter months in order to prevent this from happening again... I had a major break on my picture hand last night and it broke my heart, I almost cried :(  

I would have tried the tea bag repair method because the nail was still attached (only by a little bit) but a) I'm at Tyler's for the weekend and don't have any nail glue with me and b) Tyler and I were headed out to get burgers for dinner and I didn't want to cause a delay ;)  So the break got clipped off and when we got home, the rest of my nails got filed down too, so all 10 are about the same length now :(

My nails have not been this short since I stopped biting over 2.5 years ago :(  It makes me so sad to see them like this.  I almost decided to put off the swatching until they were grown out again, but thought "no, just because they are short doesn't mean they can't be used for swatching".  So just a forewarning, my nails look super tiny in these swatch pictures.

Alrighty, enough reminiscing, they are only fingernails, they will grow back.  As I mentioned in my haul post, this collection was created to help raise money for helping rescued Pit Bulls find their Forever Home with "moms and dads" who love them.  Nicole is donating 10% of all polishes purchased to Atlanta Bully Rescue.  If you purchase the entire collection (all 7 polishes), she will donate 20%!  And though I am not comfortable around Pit Bulls myself, this is such a great cause and I commend Nicole for doing it :D

**WARNING**  Picture heavy!!

First up is Blue Coat.  This is a stunning dark blue (not really navy) with silver micro glitter.  It's not jam-packed with glitter, but there is enough there to make it beautiful :)

This is so pretty!  This is 2 coats, no top coat.  You can see how shiny it is even without the top coat, though I'm sure it would have brought out even more of the sparkle.  I think this would be a perfect polish to do Galaxy Nails on :D

Up next is Smokey Coat (I'm doing non-glitters first).  This is the same type of polish as Blue coat, but it is a stunning charcoal/gunmetal grey.  It has the same silver micro glitter flecks in it, but again it's not loaded with glitter.

Again, this polish went on in 2 easy coats, no top coat, though you probably could get away with just one coat if you are careful with it.  There was some very minor streaking with the first coat so that is why I added the second, just to make sure everything was good and opaque :D

Now onto the glitters in this collection.  As most of you know, I am not a huge fan of glitters, but if they "speak" to me, I usually am willing to make an exception :)

The first of the glitters is Brindle.  Brindle is a clear base with copper brown small glitters and medium black hex glitters.  I applied this over a variety of colours to see what the best base colour would be.

Base Colours
Left to Right:  Julep Lisa, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, Jordana Black, Julep Alyson

Brindle over colours as noted above, no base colour on thumb, no top coat

2 coats of Brindle, no base colour

1 coat of Brindle over 1 coat Julep Lisa

1 coat Brindle over 1 coat Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On

1 coat Brindle over 1 coat Jordana Black

1 coat Brindle over 1 coats Julep Alyson

I didn't really have to fish for the black hex glitters, but you can see that they didn't apply in abundance either.  I also had to place a few of them while I was polishing, so this glitter does take a bit of work to get it looking right, but it wasn't so much work that it was frustrating :)  My favourite colour combination of what I used for swatches is Brindle over Julep Alyson.  I think the nude/tan colour perfectly compliments the 2 glitter colours :)

Next up is Spotted & Splotched.  I used the same base colours for this glitter.  This is pretty much the same as Brindle, but instead of medium black hex glitters, it has medium white hex glitters.

Base Colours
Left to Right:  Julep Lisa, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, Jordana Black, Julep Alyson

Spotted & Splotched over colours as noted above, no base colour on thumb, no top coat

2 coats Spotted & Splotched, no base colour

1 coat of Spotted & Splotched over 1 coat Julep Lisa

1 coat Spotted & Splotched over Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On

1 coat Spotted & Splotched over Jordana Black

1 coat Spotted & Splotched over 1 coat Julep Alyson

This glitter seemed to apply better than Brindle.  The white hexes were much easier to get out of the bottle, there was a never ending supply of them :)  My favourite colour combination of what I used for swatching is Spotted & Splotched over Jordana Black.  The black definitely makes the white hexes stand out, though I do like how the white hexes are still visible over Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On.

Up next is Forever Home.  This is a clear based glitter with small blue square glitter, white and black medium hex glitter and red heart glitter.  I applied this over a variety of colours to see what the best base colour would be.

Base Colours
Left to Right: Julep Jesica, Julep Mystery Yellow (September 2012), Julep Alyson, Julep Lisa

Forever Home over colours as noted above, no base colour on thumb, no top coat

2 coats Forever Home, no base colour

2 coats Forever Home over 1 coat Julep Jessica

2 coats Forever Home over 2 coats Julep Mystery Yellow (September 2012)

2 coats Forever Home over 2 coats Julep Alyson

2 coats Forever Home over 2 coats Julep Lisa

As you can see, I was only able to get one of the heart glitters out, and I had to fish for it.  I was really looking forward to this glitter, but I'm sad to say that it let me down a little :(  I was hoping that the heart glitters would be easier to get out of the bottle and onto the nail.  My favourite combination of what I used would have to be Forever Home over Julep Mystery Yellow (September 2012) because I think Forever Home should be paired with something bright, resembling the hope of finding a Forever Home for all the rescues.

The next is Happy Tears.  This is a shimmery blue-jelly base with small blue square glitters and medium white hex glitters.  Again, I layered it over a variety of colours to see which looked best.

Base Colours
Left to Right: Julep Jessica, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, Jordana Black, Essie Mesmerize

Happy Tears over colours as noted above, no base colour on thumb, no top coat

2 coats Happy Tears, no base colour

1 coat Happy Tears over 1 coat Julep Jessica

1 coat Happy Tears over 1 coat Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On

1 coat Happy Tears over 1 coat Jordana Black

1 coat Happy Tears over 1 coat Essie Mesmerize

I really like this one.  I like that the base has a tint to it, so you could wear it alone if you wanted to.  I also like how it changed the black polish to look like navy.  My favourite combination is Happy Tears over Jordana Black.  I just love the effect the blue jelly base has on the black base colour :)  It also lets both the small square blue glitter and medium white hex glitter stand out :)

Finally, we have Red Nose.  This is a clear based glitter with small red-ish-orange, almost rust coloured glitter.  This one is beautiful in the bottle, I love it :)  As with the other glitters, I layered this over a variety of base colours to help decide what I think is the best combination :)

Base Colours
Left to Right: Julep Delaunay, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, Jordana Black, Julep Mystery Yellow (September 2012)

Red Nose over colours as noted above, no base colour on thumb, no top coat

2 coats red Nose, no base colour

1 coat Red Nose over 1 coat Julep Delaunay

1 coat Red Nose over 1 coat Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On

1 coat Red Nose over 1 coat Jordana Black

1 coat Red Nose over 2 coats Julep Mystery Yellow (September 2012)

This glitter applied like a dream.  There was no spottiness when it was applied, and I think if you applied 3 coats of it on its own it would have full coverage :)  I think that my favourite combination is Red Nose over Julep Delaunay, though I think this could be paired with a lot of different base colours to achieve a wide range of beautiful combinations :D  Also, the combination of Red Nose over Jordana Black is very Hallowe'eny, so it could be worn as a Hallowe'en  mani :)

All in all, great collection Nicole!  I love every one of the polishes, though I did have some trouble with Forever Home.  I like that they are all so versatile and could really be paired with anything :D  My favourites are Blue Coat and Red Nose, which were the ones I was drawn to when I first saw her swatches :)

If you want to get your own polish(es) from this collection, head on over to Elixir Lacquers and pick yourself up some!  Don't forget that Nicole will donate 10% (so $1) of every bottle purchased, and 20% of every entire collection purchased ($14) to Atlanta Bully Rescue!  It's such a great cause to support, even if you are like me and aren't comfortable around Pit Bulls but are still an animal-lover.

Oh, and Owen wanted to say hi to everyone!  He was hanging out with me while I was swatching and we had a couple snuggles and ear scratches in between colours :)  I think he was trying to ask if there was a polish that I was using that was made to represent him :D