Haul!

Hello lacquered lovelies! Today's post is a bit different from what I usually do, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. Please do not panic - nail polish is still involved. It's just not everything! And this is suuuuuper pic heavy so I apologize in advance! I'm also actually showing my face, which I feel all spastic about but I fail at taking mirror pictures and wanted to show my hair length when I talked about one product, so...

I went shopping with my new roomie, Melissa, on... Monday, I think? I don't remember. Yes, it must have been because we went to bingo and... oh well, you don't care about how old I am and how I have trouble remembering things! 

Anyway, I got a mixture of things - a lot of bath products, nail polish and some CDs - I rarely buy CDs anymore, though I have quite a few. I generally swap albums online with people - I'll upload something from my computer that I have on CD that I know they want and they do the same for me. It's still downloading, of course, but I feel slightly better knowing that at least one of us did buy the album.

This is everything all laid out. :)

Let's take a closer look! Starting with the polishes, perhaps?

Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme, Saved by the Blue, Sally Hansen Hard as Nails blah blah Purple Pizzazz and Wet 'n' Wild 9.0.2.1.Orange. The Wet 'n' Wild names kill me but the colours are pretty!

From the Retro Diva collection (2009). You all know how I feel about orange!

From the Holiday in Toyland collection (2008).

From the Holiday Wishes collection (2009). I got two bottles because the adorable miss Madita said it was one of her biggest lemmings. I can't wait to send it to her! I rarely get the chance to help in lemming slaying (boo Canada) so I'm super excited!

Biggest surprise of the day - I found this and the bottles of Shim-merry Chic at a hole in the wall salon!

I also have a slight addiction to yummy smelling bath products. From the Body Shop, I got:

I got the tea tree oil skin clearing lotion, fuzzy peach shower gel, ice blue shampoo (which smells all menthol-y), green apple shower gel and the tea tree oil foaming cleanser. I looooooove the tea tree oil stuff, it works really well for my skin and I love the smell. I also like that it's not full of chemicals, sometimes my skin needs a break! The Body Shop is having an awesome deal right now too - buy two, get one free, or buy five and get two free. I love stuff like that! There was also a groupon for the Body Shop, $40 (or $45 if used by the end of May) in products for $20! I went to go find the link but sadly, it appears that it has ended. :(

We also went to HMV, where I got two CDs...

Beady Eye - Different Gear, Still Speeding. To cut it short: Oasis is my favourite band. I was devastated when they broke up. I need all things Oasis-related, Beady Eye is basically Oasis without Noel so I got it. Though Noel was my favourite part of Oasis...

Another one of my obsessions is music. And along with that obsession (and hundreds of CDs) comes a bit of OCD. I have a... well, a list problem. I obsessively make lists all the time. I do it without even realizing it. Have you ever read High Fidelity by Nick Hornby? The main character, Rob, makes lists throughout the book, especially when it comes to music. Music is where my main list-making obsession comes in. All of this is a long way to say that I always have a list of bands that I want to get around listening to, and the Black Keys are on that list. I've got the first two albums on my computer but I wanted to try Brothers out too, and I quite like it so far!

And fiiiiiiinally, possibly my favourite part of the day, was our visit to Lush.

I got Retread because the jungle conditioner bar does NOTHING for me. I have pretty long hair and I moisturize it a lot, especially because it's wavy. I twitpicd this already, but here's what I mean:

Haha I look dumb. I would like to say that I don't make faces like that a lot, but it would be a lie. My hair is layered too, so the longest bits aren't usually visible, usually only half my hair is over my shoulder at any given moment, like this:

Oh yeah, and I look twelve. This was also a minimal make up day but still. I feel all anxious about doing this LOL... be merciful! I don't know how beauty bloggers do it... anyway! I just wanted to show what I mean when I say my hair is long and needs all the help it can get. Jen and I were talking on twitter about how much jungle sucks (I'm sorry but it's true - it also smells like clumps of grass and dirt. Eww) and the awesome and hilarious Emily suggested that we try Retread, a suggestion which the lovely Jeanette echoed. I haven't tried it enough to say for sure but it definitely makes my hair feel better!

Smells. So. Good.

One of my favourite perfumes ever - I hate floral scents with a passion, I like lighter scents like vanilla or fresh fruity scents like apple.

That is the butterball bath bomb. Mmm.

And soap! I was going to photoshop the prices out but I suck at photoshop, so I'm sorry! This one, Sexy Peel, smells very citrus-y and fresh. Looove.

This is my biggest soap addiction. It smells amazing. Seriously. I don't even want to attempt to describe it. Just get it. It's lovely.

I got this because it smells a bit minty and I thought it would help me wake up in the morning. It's the brightest blue ever!

And the Herbalism cleanser, which I decided to try after a recommendation from an employee at the Lush downtown. Mel and I went to another one in a mall (for old people), which I was stoked about because I find the employees at the one downtown totally overbearing and a bit terrifying.

WHEW this was supposed to be a quick post but it's so long! Thanks for staying with me if you made it this far, and I hope you enjoyed this! Thankfully, I don't do this often (my wallet is also glad) so I probably won't do this again unless it's something you enjoyed - let me know in the comments!

Again, I'm sorry for the pic spam! I hope you all have a fabulous Saturday and I hope to talk to some of you in the comments! And tell me, what's your favourite bath product? Or your favourite Lush/Body Shop product? I love hearing suggestions!

Friday hodge podge and a fail

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Friday WHOOOOO! I'm glad it's Friday. Today's post is late because of miss Elizabeth, she wanted me to stay up and talk to her while she watched the royal wedding and I could hardly turn my girl down! So I came home from work, had a quick catnap, got up at 1 AM my time and finally went to bed around 6 AM. I'm wiped and running a bit slowly but another shower will wake me up, I think!

So today's post is just going to be some random stuff I have lying around. Sometimes I get a backlog of pictures (sometimes being all the time...) and I don't get around to posting them because I get distracted by other things.

First up, a very simple manicure that I quite liked, probably because I returned to my glitter accent nail ways with it. I need to do that more often. Or just wear more glitter again. I miss it. I used OPI Rumple's Wiggin' (part of my promise to get better with cremes!) and it only took me two coats to level it out, yay! Rumple's Wiggin' is a pale sort of lilac colour, I actually really liked it, though I hadn't been expecting to. I decided to add some glitter, so I added one coat of OPI Show It and Glow It. The weather was terrible that day, so I apologize for the lack of sunlight pictures!

Then when I got home, I added one more glitter... OPI Mad as a Hatter. I don't know how people think this, but whenever I go into a salon that sells nail polish wearing MAAH, people ALWAYS ask me if it's Show It and Glow It. I don't know why, because...

Show It and Glow It

Mad as a Hatter

I think they're pretty different and that those ladies don't have eyes...

Now, while wandering through London Drugs with my roomie a few weeks ago, I heard a make up counter sales assistant talking about this new brand of crackles they had. These are by a brand called La Rosa... I've never heard of them before, but I did find them online here if you're interested. Awesome colour selection, I want more! Naturally, I veered over to look and was immediately drawn in by a forest green crackle. Umm YES I love green! So I decided to try it during my swatchathon on Friday...

Layered over My Fabulous Fighter Jet, Jen's awesome franken, which you can see here.

The shadow by my middle finger is a total fail on my part but I'm only showing this picture because I love how the sparkle peeks through!

Andddddddd now for the fail.

Soooooo... my idea was for this to look like a globe, you know? Blue water and then the crackle would look like land? I used Sally Hansen Brisk Blue for the base and clearly didn't wait long enough for it to dry... fail. Also, Brisk Blue stained my fingers when I was removing it. Not a fan. It was a nice one coater though!

Alright, I've spammed you enough for one day! I hope you all have a lovely Friday! Tomorrow's post will be a bit different but I've already started writing it and I'm excited. I hope you guys like it too!

High five because it's the weekend and I hope to talk to some of you in the comments! 

A Jen franken

Hello lacquered lovelies. We're almost at the weekend... yay! I'm glad Ange and Landa are okay... seriously glad. And I hope that anybody down there that might be reading is safe, and that you hear from relatives soon for those of my lovelies that might have family down there.  

Anyway... today's polish is pretty awesome... except my camera utterly failed at capturing it. A little while ago I did a swap one of my giiiiiirls, the lovely, sweet and awesome Jen. It was so cool to swap with her and I was so excited - she was my very first swap and I'm glad that it was someone that has turned into a good friend!

So, like any nail blogger with eyes that, you know, function, can attest to, the holo version of OPI My Private Jet is pretty coveted. It's got a smoky black base and totally in your face linear holo. Just google it. It's a bit sheer, but the holo. There are at least two versions of it floating around, but I believe it's actually three... the original holo version, then a lighter charcoal-brownish base that looks a bit pink, and then one that's way more brown than black. Sometimes you'll see the original on ebay, usually for some outrageous sum of money, and I was always sorely tempted. Jen and I are sadly lacking in the original, but Jen, the crafty little minx, decided to franken her own, and that's what I'm showing you today.

A word of warning - it is 100000000000000000000x better in person. Seriously. Jen did a much better job of showing it off here, but I tried my best! She named this beauty My Fabulous Fighter Jet - how cute is she?

Seriously soooo pretty. I want this in every colour.

I've tried to do this polish justice a few times since I got it but the last time was the first day that I had full on sunlight for more than two minutes. I took about 200 pictures of this!

Please sell these, Jen. Pretty please with magic on top? I'd cut bishes for more polishes like this... :)

What do you guys think? How awesome is this? Would you buy it? 

That's all from me today. I hope to talk to some of you in the comments! I know I've been crap at replying lately but I'm going to get better, promise. It's been a weird last couple of days! I also have a question - would you guys be interested in seeing a haul post on Saturday? It's not REALLY nail polish related (though I did get some polishes) - it would be a mix of polish, bath products... and a couple CDs haha. Is that something you'd be interested in seeing? Let me know in the comments!

Please keep those in the storm areas in your thoughts and prayers. I'll be thinking of my girls as mother nature continues to be a b*tch and I hope that you and your loved ones are safe.

A Pink Wednesday comparison!

Hi lacquered lovelies! Happy hump day! The preteen in me always laughs when I say that... anyway! Today is Wednesday and you know what that means! Don't forget to check the website out to see the other bloggers participating! And don't forget that you can join there yourself - Jasmine made a handy little form to fill out and then she'll add you to the blogroll! And then you can sit with us... ;)

So today I have another comparison post involving the China Glaze Island Escape collection. I got a couple of emails asking for this one, so I decided to take full advantage of the sunlight when it appeared! I'll say now that this will be a little picture-heavy, but I really want to show the differences between the polishes!

For this comparison, I used China Glaze Ahoy!, China Glaze 108 Degrees and OPI Wing It!. The China Glaze polishes needed three coats for me to be pleased with their opacity, but the OPI needed four and even then I wasn't happy with it - maybe I just got a dud bottle? Also, I'm sorry about that irritating bit of missed polish on my pinky. I tried to photoshop it out, since I haven't gotten the good sunlight to do these again, but I suck at photoshopping on the best of days, so... I'm sorry!

Full sunlight

Shade

Lamp (the one I originally showed Ahoy! under)

And close up shots of each - Ahoy!.

108 Degrees

And Wing It!.

I included Wing It! because I needed a third colour and because it has the same kind of shimmer as 108 Degrees, but that's where the similarities end. Wing It! is much more of an orangey-red pink, 108 Degrees looks like sparkly candy and Ahoy! is almost more of a magenta colour. 

I wouldn't call 108 Degrees and Ahoy! dupes, but, like yesterday, cousins. Wing It! is like that weird friend that everyone has that looks like another one of your friends and everyone thinks they're related but they aren't and... yeah. That friend.

I can't pick a winner between the China Glazes. I love both for different reasons - Ahoy! is the only pink I've worn multiple times and I fall a little more in love with it each time. But 108 Degrees appeals madly to my magpie-like nature and it screams summer. My camera freaks out at all of its awesome sparkle all the time - you can't hide it even in the shade! Loooove!

That's all from me today! What do you guys think? What would you pick as the winner? Are you looking forward to getting any Island Escape polishes? I know that comparison posts aren't always that enjoyable to read but I hope you find them helpful!

Thanks for reading, lovelies! Have a beautiful day and I hope to talk to some of you in the comments!

Yay no dupe alert!

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Tuesday! I always like Tuesdays, I'm not sure why. Usually I work but it's senior's day at my workplace, and my love for history means I'm also pretty fond of old people lol!

Anyway, today I have a comparison post for you. I've seen a lot of questions asked about these two and I haven't seen too many comparisons done yet, but I got a few emails and decided to give it a go. A lot of people wondered if China Glaze's Electric Pineapple (from the upcoming [and gorgeous] Island Escape collection) was similar to OPI's Fiercely Fiona. I recently picked FF up while it was on clearance at a local salon (the first time I grabbed at it my roommate had to hold back her vomit lol!) and put it on my "to do" list of blog-related things - my spreadsheet may not be done, but I've gotten two Island Escape comparisons done! Enough talky talky, onto the pictures!

On my middle finger is Fiercely Fiona, ring is Electric Pineapple and my pinky is EP close to my cuticle and FF on the "top" half.

Apologies for the bad clean up here, but I did this (with a terrible line - I seriously can't eyeball anything lol!) to show them right next to each other. Next to Fiercely Fiona, Electric Pineapple looks green!

So there we have it. Not dupes - FF is much more yellow and EP has that dash of green in it. More like cousins. In terms of application, they were about even - streaky nightmare on the first coat, leveling out on the second coat but still needing that third to get everything all evened out. I quite like both colours - FF is almost dirty looking and EP seems pretty unique - but I have to say that I like Electric Pineapple better. I think it looks slightly better on me (though both are far from being ideal colours for my skintone!) and I like the touch of green it has better.

Electric Pineapple really looks green in these pictures, looking back at them.... Let me remind you of what it looks like, even though I've already posted this picture:

Ugh stupid raggedy nail edge. Anyway, it's not green!

So there you have it. I'm sorry for your wallets, but they are not dupes. Then again, I realize that these colours aren't for everyone - I personally like colours that my former roomie would call "fugly", so there we go. I'm wondering if I should have included OPI Who the Shrek Are You? in this, just to see - I kind of see Electric Pineapple as the lovechild of WTSAY? and FF. 

That's all from me today, lovelies. What do you think? Which do you prefer? Do you like colours like this? Is this a pass for you? I'm glad to have both, personally!

Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day and I hope to talk to some of you in the comments!

Lex Cosmetics Yes!

Hello lacquered lovelies! Another Monday. Hopefully some of you have the day off - it's a holiday, isn't it? I really have no idea, since I never work Mondays anyway and classes are officially over - I'm just waiting on all of my marks now. I'm glad it's all over but I still hate this part, the waiting sucks! 

Today I have a lovely polish from Lex Cosmetics to show you. I looooooove Lex, but let me allow the "about" section of their website explain why!

At Lex Cosmetics, we believe that beauty permeates from each one of you and that your individual spirits make you gorgeous! That's why we don't understand why big companies dictate what you should or should not buy in order to feel more beautiful. You should decide what makes you feel great, which is why our company was formed. We were founded on the belief that beauty should be created by those who use it and that make-up and nail polish are fun, so why not join in the creation experience?!

Additionally, we do not believe beauty is only skin deep. We find the most attractive people to be those who give back and dedicate their money and/or time to making our world a better place. Since we place such great importance on giving back to the world, we will be donating a percentage of profits to different non-profits and organizations that are important to you, which is why you will choose them!

So dig through magazines for inspiration, upload pictures of colors you love or just tell us what beauty products you are looking for and we'll make them. Because at Lex Cosmetics, Beauty is By You. 

How awesome is that? How many times have you been thinking of a nail polish and been unable to find it? It happens to me ALL the time, so I love the idea of a company that will take your ideas and make them into a reality! And the owner, Alexa, is super sweet, which is an added bonus!

I'm showing you a polish called Yes! today. Yes! was created by Jackie and was inspired by a rose petal in an arrangement from the night she got engaged. How sweet is that? I thought the story behind it was adorable and the colour isn't something I'd normally go for, so I decided to try it out!

Yes! is a very bold red-based pink creme. Application was an absolute dream. I was originally just going to swatch this but I ended up wearing it as a full mani and got lots of compliments - it's attention-grabbing without being overpowering and I think it's really flirty and feminine. I used two coats and topcoat for these pictures. Yes! was quite shiny on its own but I just wanted the extra protection!

Can I also just say that these bottles are so freakin' cute? I love the shape of them and the cap is adorable.

Haha, it's a little less than glamourous, I know, but this is where I take pictures - for a couple of hours when it's sunny out, I get the best light right outside my door! I had this bottle out when a few people came over last week and they commented on how cute it was, as did my new roommate! I'm a sucker for cute packaging, but thankfully, there's something awesome inside!

The fact that $1 from the purchase of each polish goes toward a charity of the creator's choosing really closes the deal for me. The dollar from every purchase of Yes! goes toward breast cancer research and there are a ton of other charities and causes that you can help out just by buying a bottle of nail polish! You'll get a great polish and you'll be doing a good thing - it's a win-win for me, really.

Lex polishes can be purchased on their website and are $10 each. Each polish has an interesting story behind it and it's so cool to see what other people have come up with! I'm definitely eyeing the website now... I'm sure you won't be surprised, but Himalaya and Haggard Life are calling me. They look stunning!

So that's it from me today! What do you guys think? Isn't this gorgeous? I can't wait to wear it on my toes! Have you tried any polishes by Lex Cosmetics? Do you plan to? I can't wait to get my paws on some more, I wish all cremes applied as beautifully as Yes! did - it would make me into a creme lover for sure!

Have a beautiful day, lovelies, and I hope to talk to some of you in the comments!

The product in this post was provided to me for review. For more information, see my disclosure tab above.

Nicole's back with Island Escape!

Hey there, ladies! It's been a while, eh? I've missed you so much, but I know you've been enjoying reading all of Kirsten's posts (I sure have), so it's all okay!

Hopefully nothing goes wrong with this post, I'm having to post this from my phone at work (hurray for employment!). If anything messes up, I'll fix it as soon as I can. :)

Anyway, life has been keeping me pretty busy lately, what with exams (my last final isn't until the 28th) and me getting a job, but I'm really looking forward to the summer. On that theme, here are some swatches of a collection that just screams summer! I present to you China Glaze's Island Escape collection, which Kirsten generously lent to me. <3

All polishes are shown with three coats, no base coat or topcoat.

First up is Papaya Punch, a bright, yellow-leaning orange creme. Like Kirsten, I had major problems with the two cremes of the collection. I think the colours are beautiful and perfect for the summer, but something about the formula just didn't work for me. They were streaky and it definitely felt like I was trying to paint my nails with glue. As you might be able to tell from some of the staining around my cuticles, this picture was taken after my second attempt with this polish. I promise I'm not actually jaundiced.

Next is Electric Pineapple, the other creme in the collection. This one is a slightly greenish yellow with the same tricky formula. I managed to get this one to apply reasonably well on my first attempt, which was a relief. I just had to really take my time with it.

Neither of the cremes are shades that I would choose for myself, but I really like them for summer and the more I see them the more they start to grow on me. They seem like they'd be lots of fun with all of the crackle polishes that are coming out in the next few months.

And now for the shimmers!


The first of the shimmers is 108 Degrees, which made my camera freak right the hell out. It was just incapable of capturing the true majesty of this polish, which is a real shame. It's a stunning hot pink glass fleck that sparkles like nobody's business. I'm not a huge fan of pink, but I think this is my second favourite of the whole collection. The base colour seems really similar to Sally Hansen Xtreme etc Hot Magenta, it has that same sort of glowy quality to it.


We all knew from the start that this one was going to be my favourite. I have a serious weakness for the purples. Senorita Bonita is a purple shimmer absolutely packed with glass-fleck. Seriously, just look at the sparkly madness on my (un)intentionally blurred index finger there. Insanity, right? At first glance I thought it was going to be sort of dupey to Coconut Kiss, but as soon as I put on the first coat I knew that it was so much more. I adore Coconut Kiss, but Senorita Bonita just takes it up a notch.


One two three cha-cha-cha, six seven cha-cha-cha! That's the cha cha beat, right? I dunno, it's been a few years since I stopped doing latin dance, but that's the beat that got stuck in my head as soon as I saw the name for this beauty. Cha Cha Cha is a yellowish green shimmer. It's not my favourite kind of green but dang, it makes me miss salsa dancing. :P

Last is Blue Iguana which, as the name suggests, is blue. What the name doesn't tell you, however, is that it has an awesome purple flash. You all know how I feel about sneaky shimmers, and the fact that this particular shimmer is purple is just icing on the cake. The unfortunate thing, as Kirsten mentioned in her post on this collection, is that the purple flash disappears a little bit each time you add another coat, so by the time I got it up to three coats it was pretty much all the way gone. :( Oh well, it's just incentive for you all to go out and see it for yourself!

Have you had a chance to scoop any of these up yet? What are your favourite colours to wear during the summer?

I know you ladies have probably seen this collection a zillion times by now (heck, it's already appeared once on this blog), so thank you so much for reading if you made it all the way through this time! It was wonderful to talk at you all again, and I'll chat with you again soon!

<3<3<3

Day five: I suck at French tips

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Friday, whooooo! I'm sorry this post is so late. My roommate is moving out, so we had a sort of going away get together for her last night. I didn't end up getting the people who crashed here to bed until 4 and I didn't fall asleep until 5:30 or so. Then I got up early to clean everything up before roomie's parents got here. Hiding the evidence, right? All her stuff is pretty much gone now and my new roomie should be here on Sunday! I also just wanted to say that I hope my girl Jen feels better and that my girl Ange is feeling a bit better today. Hugs and good vibes, lovahhhs! <3

EDIT: I totally wanted to mention this and completely forgot because I feel bad about the weird posting time today! But I hit 500 followers yesterday and I want to thank you all so much! You all brighten my day and I'm so glad to have you around. Talking to you on twitter, Facebook or in comments makes me so happy. I've made some really great friends through blogging and I love my girls so much - you know who you are! So thank you so much for stopping by my blog. I know it's far from the best out there but I always do my best for you guys and I'm glad we're taking this little journey together! <3

Anyway, I just did a quick mani because it's the last sunny day we're supposed to have for the next week and I'm going to swatch like a crazy person while I can! So of course, I decided to go for holos. You can't beat the drying time and they always look awesome!

I got a wicked package in the mail the other day from the lovely Emily. She had found some of the China Glaze OMGs near her and was sweet enough to obtain two of the last OMGs I wanted - L8R G8R (of course) and GR8 (because I don't have many golds and it's holooooooo!) Thanks sweetie, you're the best!

I started out with L8R G8R, then I stamped using the swirly French tip from Konad M56 and China Glaze Techno Teal. I want to get better with French tips so I decided to try and tape this one off - my nails are more square and the plates are quite rounded, so I think it looks weird. Sadly, I clearly spend all my life with my head tilted, because the line on my middle finger is crooked... so annoying! I apologize for the bump on my middle finger, holos dry so fast that I have no idea how I managed to mess that up!

Blurred because look at that holo goodness!

And sorry for the messy bits on the tip and the fuzz, I have no idea what happened there!

Want to see L8R G8R on its own?

I'm drooling here. If I can just get my hands on 2NITE, I'll have all of the OMGs that interested me! Thank you again, Emily, you're a doll! <3

Is it sad that this is my brain's idea of subtle? Seriously. I kept trying to come up with words to describe it and my brain kept screaming at me that this was "subtle". Yeah. I don't really get it either.

That concludes my Konad week! I hope you guys enjoyed it. I know I'm not nearly as creative as pretty much anyone else who shows Konadicures, but I gave it my best shot! I hope that I'll get better at Konading with practice - I'd love to be as good as the gorgeous Cristina or the awesome Erika! I am link dropping all over the place today haha, but what can I say? I love these girls!

What do you lovelies think? How subtle do you think this is? Have you done any cool Konadicures lately? Do you use the French tip Konad plates? Do you use any special tricks to get everything lined up?

Have a beautiful day and I hope to talk to some of you in the comments!

Day four: I don't know what this stamp is

Hello lacquered lovelies! I just finished the mani I'm showing you today so I'm going to try not to talk much today since I'm late already! I have some weak rays of sunshine in the pictures of the finished look, but if it gets sunnier later I'll retake the pictures and add them in.

Last night, I was saying on twitter that I'm not particularly creative with this sort of visual thing and that I was having a hard time coming up with today's Konadicure. Katy, my Elizabeth's awesome sister (who will now be blogging for Elizabeth sometimes yay!) suggested purple as my base colour, which was a great idea! I really don't show or wear purple often enough. Given that my purple polishes have their own drawer, I'd say that's a shame! So I decided to go for an untried, Orly Velvet Rope. And can I just say that I have NO idea why I hadn't tried it before?

Okay. So Katy also suggested that I use M73, which I only got for the music notes, I think (so my nails could match my tattoo) but I've never properly used it! She suggested the stamp that kind of looks like a rock path or some kind of abstract thing... I have no idea. Anyway, I stamped that image using Nicole by OPI Positive Energy, one of my go-to stamping polishes when I don't want to use a special polish.

I like this, actually! Simple and fun! I messed my pinky up a bit and didn't check to make sure the image transferred fully, but live and learn, right?

And this is why Velvet Rope is glorious. Sorry about the lighting, I took this last night before I'd cleaned up my nails properly! 

Alright! That's it from me today! One more day of these Konadicures to go! I hope you guys are enjoying these. It's hard for me to come up with them (due to the above stated lack of creativity) but I do enjoy the finished product... usually!

What do you lovelies think? Do you like this? What's your favourite non-special polish to use?

Have a lovely day and I hope to talk to some of you in the comments! :)

Day three: Pink Wednesday/bit of a fail

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy hump day! It's another pink Wednesday and I decided to wear a colour that would make the Plastics tell me to gtfo - a nice neon pink. Yeahhh girl! This is a scheduled post (go me!) and as you guys read this, I'll probably be writing my last exam. It's for a history class and I love the title of this course - "The Bloody Code: Crime and Punishment in Early Modern England". University kills me with its clever titles. Ah well, the professor is AMAZING. She's hilarious and quick-witted and actually managed to make me somewhat enjoy my three hour lecture on a Monday night... at least, I didn't kill myself during the semester. Sadly, she's taking a leave for next year to work on a book and stuff. She should be teaching me.

Also, I just want to take a quick minute to thank you all for your sweet comments on yesterday's post! I'm so glad you liked it! Aaaaaaand as of the writing of this, I'm five followers away from 500... holy cow. I never expected to even have 50, so that's really awesome! I don't really pay attention to the number but I got a few texts about it so I looked haha! Thank you all so much for putting up with my ramblings and fails and encouraging my meagre attempts at nail art... you all brighten my day!

Anyway, as I said, today's mani is retina-searingly bright. As you've probably heard many of us say before, this was 100000000000000000 times brighter in person. Cameras and neons do not play well together. I also took these pictures with late sunlight, so I apologize for that. I spent a while wrestling with the stamp before I sort of got it.

I started with three coats of Color Club Warhol (I think it's Warhol - I hate that CC sets don't have names on the bottles!). It's a bright pink neon and it dries really quickly on the first two coats... once I added a third (it was a bit draggy for me) it got weird, as you'll see on my pinky. Apologies in advance.

Then I decided to be super ambitious for my stamping and try the fishnet stamp from M57. Yeah. I don't know why, but I was obsessed with making it work. I asked (multiple times) on twitter if people had any tips on using it, and I was mostly told to be patient tehe. Not a strong point for me! I did manage to get it to transfer pretty cleanly on my three nails that I show you guys (with many fails in between) so here we go!

I got inpatient and smudged the design a bit with my topcoat and for some reason, I had issues getting the stamp to the edge of my nails, but yeah, that's the general idea.

Then I got annoyed by the tip thing and decided to add black French tips. Yeah. You know how you never see French tips on here? This is probably why. I tried freehanding them, and then I went back to clean up the line with tape, after a bunch of brilliant people on twitter suggested it. It went well except for my ringer finger... I think that was all me, somehow. I mean, I can't even draw a straight line with a ruler, so....

*Slaps self* UGH! I mean, my middle finger turned out fine, and then I somehow botched my ring finger... *Hangs head in shame* Then I got sick of battling with this mani so I took it off.

My roomie said this looked like fishnets with a garter belt... cute!

Anyway, that's it from me! I think I probably should have left well enough alone and not added the tips... orrrrr have had steadier hands. I drink too much coffee for that, though... as you might have seen from a twitpic yesterday!

What do you think? Do you like this in theory (I can't ask about my execution, since it was iffy at best)? Do you think the plastics would approve? Again, imagine it 100000 times brighter.

Okay! That's it! Have a great day and I hope to talk to some of you in the comments!

Day two

Hello lacquered lovelies! I'm sorry today's post is late... for some reason, my laptop wouldn't connect to the internet, even though my phone was doing it just fine. Frustrating! I went to music bingo last night (seriously, so fun) and couldn't fall asleep for ages (anybody ever played Sally's Salon? Yeah, that was what kept me up) so I'm getting a late start already. Then I spent an hour and a half battling with the internet... after turning my laptop off and on for the millionth time, it suddenly worked. Technology, I will never understand you. 

Anyway, today I have the second day of my attempted Konad week. I'm actually posting these as I'm doing them for the rest of the week, since a fail resulted in me falling behind (I thought I'd be able to be a day ahead but no such luck!) so I'm actually sporting this currently and I don't want to remove it. This is one of my favourite manis I've ever done and it was super easy!

I used three OMGs and striped them: DV8, LOL and OMG. DV8 at the tips, OMG in the middle and LOL at the bottom (or... the place by my cuticle). Then I stamped using M57 again, because it has the full nail stamps and those are easiest for me to work with (except the fishnet stamp... damn you, fishnet stamp). Can I just say that the black special polish is a PITA to use? So messy! I did this as I was getting ready to go out the door to enjoy said bingo so my clean up isn't the greatest - apologies in advance. That's why there's only two pictures - the rest sucked. I may take more pictures later and add to this post, though, because this is cute!

Super close up to show the holo!

So yeah, that's pretty much it from me today. My nails were the life of the party last night, weren't they, friends who were there? Yeah, that's what I thought.

I want to try this with neons next, once I pick some.... but hopefully you won't be seeing anymore animal print for this week. I need to try and be more original LOL!

What do you lovelies think? Do you like this? Have you tried something similar? Maybe with neons? Would you wear this?

That's all! I hope you have a lovely day and I hope to talk to some of you in the comments!