February Nail Art Challenge Day 9

Holy cow, the February Nail Art Challenge is coming to a close already :(  Where has the time gone?!  I want to send out a big congratulations to all the girls who participated in the Challenge, you all did awesome!!

Today's theme is Recreate Your Favourite.  The idea is to either a) recreate a design from the rest of the days of the Challenge that you want to do-over or because it was your favourite to do, or b) recreate a design that one of the other participants did.  A couple girls asked if they wanted to recreate their tutorial day, could they use a different tutorial.  I decided that this would be OK, as I know there are so many wonderful tutorials out there!

February Nail Art Challenge Day 8

Howdy readers!!  It's Thursday, my last day of work - yippee!!!  Bring on the weekend so I can sleep in :D

Today is Day 8 of the Challenge, can you believe it's almost over?!  Only one more day to go, what ever will I do when it's all over?!?!  Day 8 is all about Polka Dots :D  I love me some dotticures, they are so easy to execute and the combinations are seriously endless!  All you need is polish and something pointy.  Personally, I use a tailor's pin stuck in the eraser of a pencil, an unfolded paperclip, or a toothpick, or a combination of them all, to create my dotticures.  You could also use a dried up ball point pen or the lead end of a pencil.  No need to buy those fancy schmancy dotting tools when you have so many around the house ;)

February Nail Art Challenge Day 7

Afternoon ladies and gents!  I hope all my readers in provinces that observe Family Day are having a good day off work (I know I am), and those of you in the US are having a good Presidents' Day.

I have for you Day 7 of the February Nail Art Challenge - can you believe that it is almost over?? :(  Today's theme is Inspired by a Tutorial, and I mosy'd on over to cutepolish's YouTube channel and watched her Black Spotted video again to make sure I remembered how to do it.

February Nail Art Challenge Day 6

Happy Friday polishers!  I haven't done much today besides shovel the driveway which took me about an hour.  We got some more snow last night :D  Tyler told me to tell it to stop, but I won't, hehehehe!  Tyler said that because I wasn't going to the gym today that I could shovel the driveway while he went to work - deal!!

Today I have for you my Day 6 design for the Nail Art Challenge - Gradient.

February Nail Art Challenge Day 5

Good morning my loves!  What is everyone up to today?

I have for you today my Day 5 design for the Nail Art Challenge - Valentine's Day Nails.  I have never really been "woohoo" about Valentine's Day, I think it's important to make sure to let your loved ones what they mean to you every day of the year.  Also, stores way over-price stuff like flowers and chocolates for Valentine's Day.  Just gimme my chocolate at it's regular price, please and thank you :P

February Nail Art Challenge Day 4

Happy Sunday ladies!!  Did everyone on the eastern US seaboard survive the snow?  What about all of you in Ontario, Québec and the rest of the eastern provinces?  We got about 20-30cm over Thursday and Friday :D  The snowbanks are piled high, and it's making it hard to see around corners while driving.

Today I have for you my Day 4 design for the Challenge - inspired by a pattern.  There are SO many patterns out there, but there was really only one that I knew I had to do.

February Nail Art Challenge Day 3

Good morning lovelies!!  Today's my last day of work for the week, I get to sleep in tomorrow :D  We are also expecting a BUTTLOAD of snow tonight and into tomorrow - there is an Alberta Clipper coming through and it's meeting up with a Texas Low over the Great Lakes!!  YAH-HAH-HAH-WHOOO!  The weather man says Toronto is to expect about 30cm (12inches) tonight :D

Today is Day 3 of the Nail Art Challenge, and the design for today is Glitter Loaded :D  I will admit, when I put this as an option I was going through a glitter obsession and didn't really think about how to do nail art with glitter.. but that's OK.  Looks like there are some ladies that have accomplished this already :D

February Nail Art Challenge Day 2

Good evening ladies!  I meant to have this up earlier today, but had to do some homework before being able to "play" tonight, so here I am, posting late again.

Day 2 of the Challenge is already upon us, I can't believe it!  Today's theme is half moons, and I have to say, from what I have seen already, the ladies joining me in this Challenge are pretty awesome at half moon manis.  Mine didn't turn out as crisp as I had hoped - sometimes using those hole reinforcements is trickier than it looks.

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 ;)

Nail Polish Canada Nail Art Challenge Week 3

Hello lovely ladies!  I apologize that I haven't been posting regularly the last few days :(  December is proving to be a busy month :)

I went and got some Christmas shopping done yesterday, I'm pretty well done, just need to do a little more thinking to come up with something for one more person and go get a couple more things and I'm done :)  Then I get to wrap them!!!  That's my favourite part!  I just have to think about how I'm going to bling out my gifts this year :D

Today is the last day of the Nail Polish Canada Holiday Nail Art Challenge.  This has been lots of fun doing these designs :)  This week's theme is "Trim the Tree".  I knew I had to do a full mani with the water marble Christmas trees I did from last week.  I also received Ninja Polish No Peeking this week, so I wanted to incorporate that too!

This didn't turn out quite like I pictured in my mind, I definitely like the trees I did in my "Presents" mani for last week, but I have run out of time and can't re-do it, so I just rolled with it :)

For my marble I used Sinful Colors Exotic Green, Avon Electric Green and OPI Who the Shrek Are You?. I think that Exotic Green and Electric Green are too close in colour to marble together for a Christmas tree.  For the trimmings I used Avon Ruby Slippers and rhinestones.  I also fished for some star glitters from Ninja Polish No Peeking :)

My accent nails are Zoya Logan with Ninja Polish No Peeking.  This is an awesome Christmas glitter, and I love it!  I would love to wear this every day of December!

Don't forget head over to the collaboration of all the bloggers participating in the Nail Polish Canada Nail Art Challenge to vote for your favourite :)

Thank you to Nail Polish Canada for hosting this Nail Art Challenge, it's been a lot of fun!  And congratulations to all the girls who participated in this Challenge, everyone did a great job!

Nail Polish Canada Nail Art Challenge Week 2

YAY!!!  It's December!  Time to bust out the Christmas manis for a whole month!  And what better way to do that than to do a "present mani" for the Nail Polish Canada Holiday Nail Art Challenge??

I love everything about Christmas -- the food, the family get togethers, the decorations, the snow, the cold, the smells, and of course the PRESENTS!  Although, I love giving presents more than I love getting them, buuuut I don't mind opening one or two ;D  What is your favourite part about Christmas?

For the second week of the Challenge, the theme is Presents.  This could be any way you wanted to interpret it -- whether it be doing a mani showing what gift you wanted to receive most this year, to give a hint to your family and friends ;) or the ways to receive presents.  I chose the way to receive presents -- all wrapped beautifully and of course the main giver of gifts... (in Buddy the Elf voice) SANTA!!!!!! :D

Here are some close-ups:

Thumb -- Santa Suit Nail

Butter London Pillar Box Red base colour with two vertical rows of dots in Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, a stripe of Jordana Pop Art Black Mark and Butter London West End Wonderland for the belt!

This nail was inspired by Mary at Swatch and Learn's Santa Nails nail art design.

Index -- Wrapping Paper Nail

Butter London West End Wonderland base colour with Butter London Pillar Box Red, Zoya Irene and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On lines drawn using a toothpick to create a plaid look to represent wrapping paper :)

Middle -- Wrapped Gift Nail

Zoya Blaze base colour with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On stamped with Konad plate M67 and striped on for a wrapped gift, just for you! ;)

Ring -- Christmas Tree Nail (yes, it's upside down, sorry lol!)

Water marble with Julep Courteney, Avon Electric Green and Zoya Irene.  Topped with Dollish Polish Dino-Mite Yoshi (perfect for "Christmas tree decorations") and cat eye shaped rhinestones for a star.

This is definitely one of my favourites of this mani!  I will be doing this as a full mani for the Christmas season!!

Pinky -- Glitter Nail
Julep Delaunay base colour topped with China Glaze Twinkle Lights.  This is to resemble the meaning of Christmas... GLITTER!  Haha, just kidding.. kinda!  everything during the Christmas season is packed with glitter :)







I hope you love this mani as much as I do!  I don't want to take it off, and I'm actually not looking forward to it with all the glitter that is incorporated into it.. *sigh*

Don't forget to check out all the other wonderful present manis of the bloggers participating in the Challenge and vote for your favourite!

November Nail Art Challenge Day 10

Good evening lovely ladies!  I hope everyone has had a good week so far.  I'm really tired so I'm planning on going to bed tonight, we'll see what time I actually go to bed.

Can you believe that we are already wrapping up the November Nail Art Challenge??  Where has November gone?  Before you know it, Christmas is going to be here and gone, and the countdown will have to start all over again!

I want to say congratulations to all of the ladies who made it through the whole month with me!  We've had our "challenges", but what's the fun of a Nail Art Challenge without learning something new and trying things in the world of nail art :)  Make sure to keep an eye open for a new Nail Art Challenge in either January or February.

Day 10 of the Challenge is Recreate Your Favourite.  This could be a design you want to do again because it's a favourite, re-try because you want to improve it, or re-create a design created by another participant of the Challenge.  I decided on the last option.

I chose to re-create Amber's Day 3 Inspired by a Tutorial mani.  As soon as I saw this I HAD to try it!  So I stopped on over to my local dollar store to see if they had some loose eyeshadow.  I don't wear a lot of makeup, so I didn't want to spend a lot of money on it.  I found some LA COLORS loose eyeshadow, they had about 20 colours, so I got a goldy coloured one in case I decide to try it as an eyeshadow sometime.

For this I used Julep Keira and then LA COLORS loose eyeshadow in Honeysuckle.  This was so easy to do, and I am absolutely in love with it.  Let's just say I want to polish tonight but I don't want to take this off!

I love my nails at this length, I think I will try to keep them this long from now on.  It's a really good length for typing, texting, etc. but still looks long and beautiful :)

November Nail Art Challenge Day 9

Good afternoon lovely readers!  I can't believe it's the end of November, and the 2nd last day of the Challenge :(  Not sure what I'm going to do when all this is over.. though I'm sure I will come up with something to fill in my free time in December :)

Day 9 is Water Marble.  This is the one that I have the most fun with, I love water marbling, I just wish I had more time to do them more often.  I'm sorry for all the girls that have had a hard time with this design :(  I promise that once you get the hang of it, it's fun!

For this, I didn't know what colour combination to do, so I posted a question on the Facebook page and Patricia suggested navy and pastel pink.  I love this idea, so here's what I did.

Alright, so this wasn't my best water marble to date, but I will definitely be doing this colour combination again!  If I had time I would definitely redo it for the Challenge, but today's the last day to link up for Day 9, so I will just be happy with this one :)

I knicked my middle finger off the edge of the table I was working on when I was applying my top coat .. whoops! >.<  Note to self - work at a thinner table top.  Our kitchen table is about 1-1/2" thick and with the lighting it's tricky to see what you're doing, so I put the finger I'm working on on the table surface and the rest under the table top.

Looks like there was a water bubble on my pinky too.

I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On as my base colour, I was going to include white in the design but decided against it after I got my nails painted, so that's why the white is showing through the design in some places.  Then I used Julep Carrie (pink) and Eloise (blue) in my marble.  Next time I will definitely paint my nails with Carrie and then do my water marble, that way the white won't show through the pink :)  Plus, then I think that Carrie would be a little bolder in the design as well :)

My favourite nail is my index, just because there is nothing wrong with the design -- no thin polish in the marble causing white to show through, no water bubbles, no knicks, no smears :)

Nail Polish Canada Challenge Week 1

Hello happy readers!  I hope all my US readers had/are having a wonderful Thanksgiving, and those of you who are out shopping in the Black Friday madness are being safe, and finding some awesome deals!!

Nail Polish Canada is having a Holiday Nail Art Challenge where bloggers can enter to win massive amounts of prizes :)  I saw originally saw this on Neverland Nail Blog while scrolling through my reading list on blogger.  I later found out the Nail Polish Canada sent out e-mails for this and was a little disappointed I didn't get an e-mail too, but I also haven't informed them that I'm a blogger so that may have something to do with it ;)

Anywho, the theme for the first week of the Challenge is Snow.  *sigh* I LOVE snow!  It's my favourite thing about winter.  I look forward to the winter season as soon as the last pile of snow is melted in the spring, and people around me, including my family, think I'm a little whacked.  I tell them "if you live in Canada, you probably should like snow" ;)  I really hate when people whine about it when the weatherman starts using the "s" word (snow) and the "f" word (flurries) when showing the forecast... you know where you live, you know what to expect :D

For this, I did some stamping.  I knew I had the perfect stamping plate for this theme - Bundle Monster BM-323, the full nail snowflake design :)  When I first got my Bundle Monster plates this is one that caught my eye (probably because of my obsession with snow ;) ).

I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On and Julep Gunta (dark blue) as my base colours, and Julep Fina (metallic light blue) for the stamping.  I was actually undecided what colour combinations to use so I consulted with my youngest sister and my mom to decide.  My sister like the white with metallic blue flakes and my mom liked the dark blue with metallic blue flakes.  I decided to combine it and did my nails white with accent nails in the blue.

I hope you guys love this as much as I do :D  Make sure to head on over to the site to vote for my design, and all  your favourites!!

November Nail Art Challenge Day 8

Good morning ladies!  Thank God it's my last day of work for the week!  I need to be able to sleep in tomorrow, haha!

So I know that most of my US readers are going to be stuffing their faces with turkey dinner, and believe me, I wish I was there to join you!  I love turkey dinner, it's my favourite meal right behind a big feed of spaghetti!  However, the radio stations around here are starting to play Christmas music, so today I have started to wear my Christmas earrings!  I love wearing Christmas earrings, and if I could get away with it without looking like a complete fool, I would wear them year-round ;D

Today I have for you my nails for Day 8 of the November Nail Art Challenge... can you believe it's almost over :'(  This month has flown, I can't believe it's almost December, almost the end of the year!

Day 8 is Gradient Nails.  I know a lot of girls have trouble with this one, but I believe that practice makes perfect (well as close to perfect as humanly possible ;) ) so the more often we do it, the better we're going to be at it!  Heck, I have problems with it, but I just embrace it :D  Each time I do a gradient I get better at it :D  Gradients take a lot of trial and error and patience :)

I'm pretty darned proud of this gradient :D  For this I used OPI Fiercely Fiona for my base colour, from the Shrek Collection.  Then, with my trusty kitchen sponge (the yellow ones with the green scrubby on the back), I sponged on OPI Who The Shrek Are You?, also from the Shrek Collection :)  I think this turned out pretty awesome!  *pats own back*  Now, although Fiercely Fiona is a diarrhea/pea soup green, with some nail art (like gradients or stamping) it doesn't look so bad.  It would actually make for a really good slime colour for Hallowe'en nail art :)

The Shrek Collection is kinda tricky to find, and it's not normally cheap if you do find it.  So if you happen upon any of the collection for a good/regular OPI price, snag it if you want it! :D  I got these in a mini set from Tara from Kelara Lacquers (blog sale).

November Nail Art Challenge Day 7

Can you believe the Challenge is almost over??  This month has gone by way too fast!  And just think, 5 weeks from today and Santa will be here! :D  Weeeeeeeeeeee!!

Today we have Line/Stripe nails.  This turned out a lot darker than I was hoping and picturing in my mind.  Oh well, you can still see it :)

Ever since I got some polishes from the Zoya Ornate collection last week from Samantha (they don't ship to Canada, so I ordered them through a friend in the US) I have wanted to try Aurora (purple scattered holo) and Storm (black scattered holo).

I did 2 coats of Zoya Storm as my base colour, which should have been a lighter colour.  Then I applied some striping tape in diagonal lines on my nails and painted over them with 1 coat of Zoya Aurora.  You have to do one nail at a time when you are using tape/striping tape as you have to remove the tape right after polishing over it to create a clean line :)

I have one thing to say about these Zoya polishes.... WOW!  I can't wait to show you them on their own :D  And I can't wait to check them out in the sunlight!

Oh, and these pictures are taken in my new light box!  These are so easy to make, I didn't even get hurt when I was making mine, and I'm SUPER accident prone!  I will be doing a blog post about it in the next little while.  I have to make another one to keep and use at Tyler's house as they are pretty fragile to be transporting back and forth every weekend.  Maybe I will be able to do that this weekend so I can show you guys how easy it is :D

Only 3 designs left in the Challenge, then it will be time for some Christmas nails :D

November Nail Art Challenge Day 6

Happy Sunday everyone!  I hope everyone has had a good weekend :D  I can't believe that it's time to go back to work tomorrow :(  Sorry I haven't been around much since last Wednesday.  Wednesday night I spent the night at a friend's house and on Thursday we went to The Twilight Saga Marathon for the release of Breaking Dawn Part 2.  All I have to say about that is... it was freaking awesome!!!  I would go and do that every day for the rest of forever if I could.  I want to go again so badly but Tyler doesn't want to come with me and my youngest sister isn't into Twilight so she doesn't want to go :(  Breaking Dawn Part 2 is by far the best movie in the series and Breaking Dawn is my favourite book of the series.  I don't want to spoil it for anyone that hasn't seen it so I won't say anything more than "you're gonna LOVE it!!"

When I got home Friday, I made my second nail polish shelf so all my polishes are finally put away and are all neat and tidy :)  Now I just can't buy anymore so I don't have to build yet another.  I also don't have room in my bedroom for another.

Then yesterday, Tyler and I went to help some friends move into their new house.  As usual, I came home with some bumps and bruises.  I was drying a dish and it fell apart in my hands, slicing my thumb open :(  And I'm really sore from transporting all the boxes up stairs.  It's a good thing there were lots of people there to help, we had a "fire line" happening so we didn't have to travel very far with each box, but my muscles were giving me crap for all the work I made them do :(

I finally got my Day 6 design for the November Nail Art Challenge done today.  Day 6 is "inspired by another's nails" so I did some searching on Pinterest last night and found a design I loved even though it was so simple :)

Here is my inspiration.  Though I found it on Pinterest, I found the blog post that it came from.

Source

And here is my replication.  I didn't use the same pink and my design is slightly different, but I love the look of this and would love to try it with other colour combinations :)

The colours I used were China Glaze Naked (pink), Jordana Black and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On.  Though the original design was done with tape, I just used my Jordana Pop Art striping polish in Black Mark to create the lines and then filled in the black.  Then using my homemade dotting tools (pin stuck into a pencil eraser and an unfolded paper clip) I dotted on my dots.

I just realize that the original artist and I have almost the same nail shape and length, haha!

This design is so simple and it was really fun to do :D  And the colour combination options are endless!  I think this would also look great with a neon like China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.

PS - China Glaze Naked is one of my new favourite pinks.  It's definitely a Barbie pink and has a great shimmer to it :D  It's so feminine and girly :)

November Nail Art Challenge Day 5

Good morning!! :D  I am SO excited to show you what I have for you today!  Today's post is for Day 5 of the November Nail Art Challenge -- Half Moons.  Now, when I first got into nail art I wasn't too keen on the half moon look, but I think they are pretty OK now :)  It depends how they are done and the colours used.

So, as most of you may know, Big Bang Theory is my favourite TV show of all time.  I have purchased the polish collection from different DIMENSION and decided that it was time to use one :)

My favourite episode is "The Einstein Approximation" from Season 3.  In this episode, Sheldon is trying to figure out the Einstein Approximation and is trying all different ways to get it.  My favourite part is when Leonard gets called to come and get him out of the ball pit.  Here is a link to a YouTube video of this scene.. LMAO OMG I love this show! :D  (I would have embedded the clip here so you wouldn't have to open the link, but it wouldn't let me.)

Without further adieu, here are my Half Moon Nails.

BAZINGA!!! Hehehehe!

For this I used Julep Mystery Yellow for my base colour.  Then, using a small paint brush I used Julep Deluanay to create my half moons.  I didn't have any hole reinforcements to create a smooth line :(  I filled in the bottom part with Deluanay, and then topped with different DIMENSION Bazinga! from the Big Bang Theory polish collection.  This is a clear based glitter with small yellow and red glitters, small yellow and red hexes, medium yellow hexes and large red hexes.  I meant to do red moons with Bazinga over the yellow to show the glitter better but didn't realize my error until I had painted 2 coats of Mystery Yellow on my nails, haha!  Oh well :)

So then to even out my wobbly lines I stuck some rhinestones on the line to bedazzle it up a little more :)

What do you guys think??  Do you love Big Bang Theory too?  What's your favourite episode and who is your favourite character?

Want to get your own polish from the Big Bang Theory collection?  Visit different DIMENSION's shop and pick yourself up a bottle :)  She also has Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock, PENNY!!!, and Soft Kitty Warm Kitty.

November Nail Art Challenge Day 4

Happy Sunday everyone, and hopefully everyone is taking the time today to remember the fallen who fought for our freedom, whether you are celebrating Remembrance Day in Canada or Veteran's Day in the States, they are the ones that allow us to be able to do the things we do on a day-to-day basis.  I don't know about you guys, but I remember being in school and standing for The Last Post and it would always bring a tear to my eye, even though I don't personally know anyone who fought in the wars or lost their lives.  I am a pretty emotional person though, so maybe that has something to do with it.

Thinking now, I probably should have done some poppy nails for Day 4's design -- delicate print, but I didn't even think of it, to be honest.

For my delicate design, I used Essie Turquoise & Caicos as my base colour and then using Bundle Monster's stamping plate BM-317 and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Snappy Sorbet, came up with this design.  I apologize for them, in the pictures they kinda make you feel dizzy looking at them, they aren't quite as bad in person, lol!  I think it's just the colour combo that makes it like that.

First, I would like to note that Essie Turquoise & Caicos is a BEAUTIFUL colour!  This is 3 coats, but you could probably get away with 2 that are a little thicker.  If you don't have an aqua colour in your collection, I highly recommend this one.  It also turns out that, after I got this in the mail from Nail Polish Canada, my mom said "that looks a lot like the one that I have".. sure enough, we have the exact same polish, hahaha!  Of all the colours of polish out there, we both picked the same one, haha!

This was also my first time using the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes for stamping and I have to say that it turned out pretty great!  There are a few spots that are missing polish, but the places it's missing polish actually looks like it's supposed to be missing, lol!

Also, when I was filtering through the pictures I took, I also noticed that I did the stamping in alternating directions.  This was not intentional, but it's funny how things just work out, lol!

While this stamping job isn't the best, I have to say that I prefer the Bundle Monster plates to the Konad ones I have because the full nail designs on the Bundle Monster plates are bigger and are easier to fit onto the entire nail.  Usually with the Konad designs I always miss and have a big gap on the one side of my nails, lol!

I hope you enjoyed this design as much as I do.  It's so fun to look at :)  And I think that the heart design could be used as "showing my love for those who fought for my freedom" even though the poppy is the traditional symbol for that.

And in the "spirit" of Remembrance Day, I leave you with this:

In Flanders Fields

by Leutenient Colonel John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields

(source)