Purple ombre nails

Hello lacquered lovelies! I hope you all had a lovely holiday! I can't believe it's almost 2012 - do you have any big plans for new year's eve? :) I'm going to be with my parents - I'm so excited to see them!

Today I have something a little different for me to share with you guys. I've never tried an ombre manicure before, but I adore them every time I see them, so I figured I'd give one a shot! I originally wanted to do one with greens but... I never thought I'd say this, but it's like I don't have enough greens. I have more greens than any other colour, but I couldn't find five green cremes that went well together. This was much more difficult than I'd expected. With the greens, I needed to find five that were either more blue-based or more yellow-based, then find five that I could kind of graduate into a logical order. After two nail wheels and an hour and a half of huffing straight polish fumes while my nails remained bare, I decided to try purple.

I faced similar problems with purple, but luckily, I don't purchase many warmer/red-toned purples. They just don't look that great on me, so I tend to go for cooler/blue-based purples. I found three that would work and decided to just give in and mix white to create the other two.

Also - a rare shot of my thumb?! So weird. It felt so weird to be trying to get it all up in the picture haha.

So, on my thumb is OPI Rumple's Wiggin' with a few drops of white. I used two coats. My index was three coats of OPI Rumple's Wiggin' - it didn't want to level out very nicely so I needed that third coat. Next was Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac, two coats. It looks similar to Rumple's Wiggin' in pictures but the difference was more obvious in real life. My ring finger was OPI Funky Dunkey with a couple of drops of white (two coats), and my pinky was two coats of OPI Funky Dunkey. I topped it all off with Revlon Quick Dry - super shiny!

Also - this is just after I cut my nails. I wore this on the 20th and just had to cut them down again on the 28th - they're growing really fast and I actually kind of like them short right now!

That's it! These were some classy bish nails in my opinion! What do you guys think? Have you done any ombres?

 Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

                                                             

Merry Christmas!

Hello lacquered lovelies! Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate, and I hope everyone is having a lovely Sunday!

I just wanted to write a quick post about what I'm currently wearing - this was my opening presents mani, since I'm going to repaint my nails soon! It was simple but really cute and I got a lot of compliments tehe.

I started out with a careful coat of Orly Sweet Peacock, which is OPI Swimsuit... Nailed It! etc. Bright blue foily colours like this are a bit like the Charla of this year... though I think we all know what this year's Charla was! Then I sponged China Glaze Frosty on the tips... I love Frosty. It's so freaking gorgeous and deceptively complex. I want to wear it all the time. <3

So, after waiting for that to dry, I stamped using Konad M12 and Sally Hansen White On. I stamped the snowman (he looks like he has little drunk bubbles, I love him) on all of my nails except my ring finger, which got a candy cane instead. Then I filled in the snowman's scarf and part of the candy cane with a dotting tool and China Glaze Ruby Pumps, which wasn't the most perfect job ever but it's only painfully obvious in macro... like everything haha! Then I added a little red rhinestone in the middle of the bow on the candy cane.

And yes... of course I got bubbling when I actually decided to use topcoat. Boo! :(

That's it! I just Skype opened presents with my family and I'm bagged from work so I'm going to try to take it easy today. I hope you had/are having a lovely day!


 Thanks for reading!

                                                     

Christmas mani #2: the presents are falling!

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Tuesday! I can't believe there's less than a week until Christmas. Crazy! I'm sure we're all feeling overwhelmed and a bit panicked. The holidays are excellent but crazy stressful, non? I finally had my last exam last night... this semester is finally over, yay! It was definitely one of my roughest yet, too much work stress but hopefully that'll be better next semester.

Before I get started on today's post, I want to say hi to the mother and daughter I met at my work on Saturday! They were so sweet and complimented my ombre nails (I'll show them soon!) and they said I had pretty nails... :$ It's nice to hear that in real life! I think I've learned a lot about what works for my nails in pictures so I always think they look better in photos... not that they're a lie or anything... I have no idea where I'm going with this. Basically, the mother mentioned seeing ombre nails on pinterest, which led to me telling them I had a nail blog, which they asked me to write down so yeah. If you're reading, hello! It was so cool to meet you, I never meet lacquerheads in real life!

ANYWAY, onto today's nails. I've had this idea floating around in my head for a while and decided to just attempt it while I was reading today. The second set of BM plates has a sleigh with a present on it, as well as wrapped presents... so I decided to make it look like presents were falling off the sleigh and into the snowy sky.

I started with two coats of OPI Yoga-ta Get this Blue (the name makes me want to die but it's freaking gorgeous omg. Unique? Not particularly. But stunning all the same!) Then I stamped using Nicole by OPI Positive Energy. :) I didn't use topcoat because... because it's me, honestly, and because I've been smudging my designs lately and I didn't want to take any chances!

Also, sorry for the bad lighting... the weather has been awful here! I really need to build a light box. :(

Yeaaaaaaah. I should've thought of this before but the presents are much bigger than the sleigh. As I said to Jen when we were talking about it - that's the magic of Christmas, bishes! ;)


 Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

                                                       

China Glaze Lorelei's Tiara

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Saturday! Just over a week til Christmas, right? :) What are you all doing for the holidays?

Today I've got a quick post for you. Only one of the glitters from the new "3D Glitter" (inspired by Marilyn Monroe) China Glaze collection caught my eye - Lorelei's Tiara. I saw it and knew I'd need it right away. It took hunting at three different salons but I found a display with one lonely bottle left and I snatched it up right away!

Lorelei's Tiara is gorgeous. It just looks like winter in glitter form to me. It's much more dense than I expected, which means it covers nicely in two coats, but it also means that it's thirsty. I wore topcoat the first time I wore it but alas, that was in my cameraless time. The second time, I left it gritty (I've come to the conclusion that I'm a very tactile person and that's why I like the feeling of glitter haha). It definitely isn't as shiny without topcoat though! This was two coats. The first picture is in the shade, where you can see the icy blue glitter, and the second is in the winter sun, which always makes me look rather jaundiced!

I want to wear this again tehe! I also tried layering something overtop of it, which came out rather neat... I'll post that sometime next week, hopefully!

What do you lovelies think? Did you scoop any glitters from this collection up?


 Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

                                                         

FingerPaints Special Effects collection press release!

Another press release! I'm sorry to be posting them but omg this one is so exciting! A flakie collection that's affordable?! I'm all over this. I hope you guys are as excited as I am!

Flecked

Motley

Twisted

 Flashy

Asylum

I died. What do you guys think?!

                                                             

China Glaze "Colours from the Capitol" Hunger Games Official Swatch Sheet!

Hi loves. I'm sure this is popping up everywhere right now but just in case you haven't seen it, here's the official swatch sheet for the China Glaze Hunger Games collection, called Colours from the Capitol.

So, what do you guys think? I think the last row looks flawless and obviously I'm going to need Agro! Mahogany Magic and Foie Gras (I love taupey colours and can never get enough of them) look gorgeous too! Will you be picking any of these up? Have you read the Hunger Games? I haven't yet but I'd like to!

                                                           

Penguins in Santa hats

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Wednesday :) I know I should be wearing pink but I'm just not feeling it lately :( Instead, I'm going into Christmas overdrive. Usually I'm not especially festive but this year I'm spazzing about all things Christmas-related, probably because I can't go home for Christmas so I'm trying to make the best of it!

Also, before I get into my most - I just wanted to say thank you for the sweet congratulations on my one year blogiversary :) It means a lot to me and I'm so glad to have met you all!

So I have my first real Christmas mani to show you guys today. My love Jen and I decided that we were going to challenge ourselves to do holiday manicures and settled on three as an appropriate number. She's already done two and I'm just posting my first! I decided on penguins with Santa hats because I love penguins and adding a Santa hat to anything makes it festive... right? I started out with two coats of Etude House Sherbet Blue as my base, then started making my penguins with a dotting tool, which is why they're a bit lumpy. I like things that are kind of messed up though, so I don't mind! I used Wet n Wild Black Creme, Wet n Wild White On, Konad special yellow and a-england Perceveal (which is pretty much one of the most perfect reds ever) for this. It took me ages but I was being lazy and doing other things so I doubt it would normally take that long! Then I added some topcoat, because all the layers of polish make this a bit uneven.

They look a bit crazy but they're my crazy penguins so I like them haha. I have no idea what happened with the penguin's eyes on my pinky. They're uber googly and I think I was all stoked on how relatively normal their eyes looked until then and then I jinxed myself. His eyes are wider than his body hahaha!

Also, it's 2:30 AM as I write this and I just finished taking the pictures, so that's why they're under a lamp. I'm building a lightbox soon, hopefully, so I can finally stop being at the mercy of the sun, but until I do...

Tehe - I wanted to try out the lovely Deborah's signature hand pose. It looks better with her adorable nails, I think!

So, there you have it. One of my first proper attempts at nail art that I've shown on here LOL. What do you guys think? Be merciful!

Have you done any Christmas designs yet? What do you think you'll be wearing Christmas day? :)


 Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

                                                          

One year blogiversary: China Glaze Glittering Garland + Ozotic Pro 528

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy Monday! Can you believe Christmas is so close already? What are your holiday plans? :)

Today is a special day! It has now been one year since I started blogging, yay! Happy blogiversary to me! :D This past year has flown by (most of the time, but it can't all be sunshine and roses, right?) and I hope that at least some of you will stick around for however long I'm still doing this!

So I knew I had to post today but wasn't sure what I wanted to show. I got my new camera last week and it's okay so far... I think I need to have a chance to spend more time learning its little quirks etc til I'm happy with it! I need to stop comparing it to my old camera too :( It's not fair. I was so used to my last camera and now I'm pretty sure my brain has convinced me that it was the greatest camera ever so nothing will ever compare... yeah.

Anywayyyy, today I'm showing a layering combination that I looooved. I wore it once during my camera-less period and I knew I'd have to recreate it to post! This is two coats of China Glaze Glittering Garland (DEFINITELY in my top twenty for this year, how flawless is that polish, seriously) with one coat of Ozotic Pro 528 on top. I want all of the Elytras now, they're so cool!

528 is amazing. It's blue and purple and green and pink and even flashes of orange and I don't even know. It's amazing and you need it. I scooped mine up from the gorgeous Katie of Harlow & Co.! They're pricey but totally worth it. I need the other two now! I always see 528 layered over black and if it's not black it's usually purple... I haven't really seen it over green so I knew I'd be trying that when I got it! I love how the little flakies in Glittering Garland still poke out too. I love this manicure!

What do you lovelies think? What are some more Ozotics that you think I should own? :)

 Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!

                                                        

Nubar Orange Glitter

Hello lacquered lovelies! Happy... Tuesday? The start of this week is hell for me... classes ended on Friday for us and exams started on Monday. Guess who has two exams in the first two days of the exam period and still had to work and finish assignments for other classes? Yep. Thank god it'll be over for a bit after tonight... then I'll be in the home stretch, kind of!

So today's polish is Nubar Orange Glitter. I got this from my love Jen because it's like all the things I like in one bottle. It's orange, it's glitter and it's from Jen. Though "from Jen" isn't in the bottle, but you know what I mean. Wow, brain. You should really move on here. Yes. Good idea.

This is also the last set of pictures I had on my old camera before it died! It actually died while I was taking these pictures lol!

Orange Glitter is so pretty. I wanted to wear it before fall was over because it's a very "fall" colour to me. Formula was okay but a bit thin, it took me four thin coats to get it to the opacity I wanted but I imagine shorter nails could get away with three. And yes, this is one hungry glitter. I used three coats of topcoat (should've used something thicker than Essie To Dry For haha) and it was still gritty and parched. But I love my glitters gritty, so I didn't mind. :)

My camera is supposed to be here tomorrow! I'm so excited! Hopefully I can get some pictures of these gorgeous babies.

;asdhga;ksdj Yeah. That.

That's it! What do you lovelies think? Have you been rocking any glitters lately? :)

 Thanks for reading! Have a beautiful day!