London 2012!

So as you know the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympics are tonight.  I will not be watching it because I have a rehearsal to go to.  At least it's not the all important closing ceremony featuring TAKE THAT!

Even though I'm not a huge sports fan I decided I wanted to do Olympic nails.  Originally I did the Union Jack in gold, silver and bronze.  But the shades that I had in each were BLAH together.  So I ended up with this.  On my left hand medals using microbeads. And London 2012 written on two of my fingers.  On the other hand I just painted my hands the colours of the the Olympic rings and added glitter.

And you know what?  Since I don't care all that much for sports I wish everyone participating the best of luck.  I hope you all win :) Even though most people there will in fact lose... #REALITY.

I used Essie - Moon Struck, China Glaze - White Ice, Sephora By OPI - Just a Little Dangerous, Sally Hansen - Pacific Blue, Orly - Hook Up, Essie - Pretty Edgy, Essie - Fishnet Stockings, OPI - Black Onyx, China Glaze - Medallion, acrylic paint and a roller ball pen for the text.

Half and Half

So today was one of those days.  You know those days when you just took of your previous mani, and you want to put something on your nails that's different but is no way over the top.  But what do do exactly? That's when I remembered the Fifty-Fifty mani over at Nailside.  Huzzah! Simple as blueberry pie (Which is super simple to make.  I suggest you all go and make some immediately!  I just made cottage pie the other day.  Those 2 things have nothing in common.  It was just something else I wanted to share.)

For this I simply used a piece of tape. Originally I used Orly's Iron Butterfly as a base, and Orly's Sweet Peacock for the other half.  But it didn't pop as much as I like it too. So I decided to go over it carefully with Zoya's Phoebe. I liked it much better this way.

You may notice my middle finger looks slightly odd on the Zoya side.  It has nothing to do with the polish.  I just nicked it and painted over it hoping to cover it up.

Stay tuned! Hopefully next time I post I'll have some Olympic nails for you! Or I'll fail horribly and you'll get nails covered in colourful spots.

My original mani.

Sinful Colors Espresso + Coke nails + Nail Fail

So I love Sinful Colors Espresso.  Seriously.  It's such a classy, rich colour. *drools*.

It's a gorgeous brown shimmer with red undertones. I used 3 easy coats although I could have gotten away with 2. It was a TAD on the thin side.  Not seriously, but I know for next time.  Some of the photos might make it look a bit brush strokey but in person they aren't noticeable.

Next I decided to keep on the Espresso and use them for Coke nails.  As you all probably know I love Coke.  But over the years it's become more costly. I sometimes buy it off the street.   Well it depends on the street.  You can't get Coke off every street corner.   Some don't have vending machines... See what I did there? Yup.  Anyways truth be told I rarely drink pop. It's kinda horrific for your insides.

Anyways for this I used the Espresso, then a coat of some OLD Wet n Wild gold glitter with no name. Followed by sponging on a mixture of Claire's Snowball and OPI's Over The Taupe. Then on top of then I put those clear microbeads to look like bubbles rising to the surface.  Then I shook a bottle of my Sally Hansen Quick dry top coat and put it on top so it would make extra real tiny bubbles.  Followed up with Seche Vite that was a bit thick.  I shook that bottle too. Finally another coat of the SH topcoat.  It looks pretty cool for an experiment if I do say so myself!

Finally I did watermelons on my right hand.  You would think they would be easy.  But I somehow managed to ruin them. They stink.  But I will still show them to you.

 With Flash

 Coke nails

Don't even look at this for more than a second.

OPI's My Pointe Exactly + Illamasqua's Raindrops = Perfectness

My Pointe Exactly is the only shade I got from this years soft shades collection from OPI.  I don't LOVE soft shades and I don't wear them a lot but I do like them.  And I like knowing I have some work safe shades.  You know in case I ever get a real job. I was lucky enough to a) Buy Illamasqua Raindrops on sale from Illamsaqua's website for £5. b) Buy it before it was discontinued.

My Pointe Exactly is a sheer gray Jelly. I used 3 coats for the swatch.  Although if I wanted to layer these 2 again.  I would probably only use 2.  The formula was fine.  No problems at all.  I then layered 2 thin goats of Illamasqua's Raindrops on top. Raindrops is a blue/gray, jelly polish full of iridescent flakies.

I think My Pointe Exactly works as perfect underwear for Raindrops. And what girl doesn't like really nice underwear?

Side by side. My Pointe Exactly looks less blue in person.

 It's still a bit sheer with 3 coats as you can see.  But nothing major.

 With Raindrops!

Milani - Gold Glitz : Seeing is Believeing

1) I got a huge piece of a shrimps tail accidentally lodged in my throat.  I had to fish it out with my finger.  It was HUGE guys.  I honestly wanted to take a picture and post it (It wasn't gross looking at all, just the hard shell) But I'll save that for another time.

2)More seeing is believing stuff.  I for the first time EVER wore just a glitter.  A pure glitter.  Now I'll do a full mani every once in a while and top it off with some glitter but I never do just glitter... Until today (well 3 days ago).

I wore Milani's Gold Glitz.  It's a gold glitter peppered with orange/coppery glitter. And let me just say it's pretty effin amazing.  For something that is pure glitter it's actually not over the top.  It's really blingy without being overly obnoxious.  This is of course one of Milani's one coat glitters.  I did 2 coats because most fingers needed it.  Although some would have looked fine with the one. The formula was a tad goopy but nothing thinner can't fix.

Does this mean I'll be wearing more full glitter manis?  Absolutely not.

 BLING!

Blurry but you can really see all the orange.

NYC Haul - Polishes, and Plays, and Nunchakus, Oh My!

So this is about 2 weeks to late.  Oh well.  But I had a great time in NYC! I ate a disgusting amount of boxed yakisoba, saw some AMAZING shows, hung out with Adri from Liquor, Lube and Lipstick, drunk...a bit, karaoked, and did a bit of shopping.

I actually bought less than I thought I would.  Mainly because I knew I wouldn't have space to put in when going home.  Anyways I figured since I actually didn't buy a whole lot of stuff I would just show you guys everything I bought!

(L-R) Sinful Colors Cinderella, Espresso, Rich in Heart and Secret Admirer.  And the last three were only 49 cents!

(L-R) Milani Chocolate Sprinkles and Cyberspace

(L-R) Ruby Kisses Blue My Mind, and NYX Girls Collection Noir and Robotic.

 OPI's Here Today...Arragon Tomorrow suede

And I didn't actually buy these when I was in America but I shipped them there to my aunts place eons ago because it was cheaper than international shipping.  

(L-R) Cover Brands Sticks 'N Stones and A England's Dragon.

I also bought 2 top coats and 2 base coats.

It's funny because my goal was to get more brighter colours but I couldn't help myself.  Even though I'm starting to warm to lighter shades I just LOVE darker shades. I am also excited to swatch these.  Well as excited as one get's when photographing their hand.

Look at my children!

I actually don't have any yet. And I don't plan on concocting any in the near future.  But most of the time when I wear orange nail polish that's the first thought that pops into my head.  "Look at my children. My gaggle of children. My plethora of children.  Children everywhere!"  But that might just be me.

Annnnyyyyywwwaaayyyssss. I wanted to do something a bit brighter than my usual dark colours.  And I was having a hard time picking out a colour.  Later on I was on on Tumblr when I realized that tomorrow (well today now) was (is) Jason Orange's birthday! FYI he's in Take That.  He's my new favourite member.  Howard was usurped. That's when I remembered I had Orly's Holla mini(from the Hot Shots collection).  And I thouht "If there's ever going to be a day I wear orange, today is the day!".

I used 4 coats of this.  Granted the first was goopy and bubbled.  So I added thinner and made it too thin. I'm sure if I got it to the perfect consistency it wold be a 2 coater.  The colour isn't half bad.

So here I am sitting before you.  Orange nails.  I also jazzed it up with my new bottle of Cover Brand's Sticks N Stones*.  Which BTW was goopy as sin. But nothing thinner won't fix.  I should also mention I'm not a fan of bar glitter (looks like hair) but I do love this.  It's not overdone.

TL;DR I wore an orange mani even though I don't like orange on me.  I wore it because it was Jason Orange's birthday.  That's the only Orange I would like on me. Ba dum chhhhhhhhhhhh.

 Holla with Sticks N' Stones

 Happy Birthday Jason Orange... Did you see what I did there?

 Holla on its own.

*Well the polish that was in the bottle.  I would look stupid wearing just the bottle.

Quickie post + PRIDE NAILS 2012!

So I have been conspicuously absent recently, and this will probably continue for another week and a half/two weeks.  You see, my family and I are moving shortly, and packing up our house is a busy, busy process.  Also I am still kind of in denial because I love my childhood home and moving is stupid.

BUT ANYWAY, enough of my wet-blanket-ness.  As you saw, Kas and I love Pride, and we attended two Prides this year.  In NYC I didn't do anything too exciting with my nails as they needed a bit of TLC.  So I waited til Toronto to really have fun with them.

I started with my favourite disco-ball sparkle nails: one thin coat of OPI Lucerne-tainly Look Marvellous with another coat of OPI Crown Me Already, but this time to add a bit of rainbow sparkle with a thin coat of Wet N Wild Kaleidoscope.

After that, I took a thin brush and used it to write HAPPY on my left hand and PRIDE on my right.  I blended the colours in each letter a little(though not as much as I would've liked, but hey, first shot) so I could have a fuller rainbow and not leave anything out.

For the lettering I used: Essie Too Too Hot, Finger Paints Outta Sight Orange, Kleancolor Neon Yellow, China Glaze I'm With The Lifeguard, OPI Dating a Royal, and Urban Outfitters Bandeau.

So what do you guys think?  Did any of you do Pride nails?

NYC Pride '12, Toronto Pride '11, and a condom haul! (Yes you read that correctly)

These are the nails I did for NYC Pride this year and Toronto Pride last year.  I did my nails again this year for TO but it turned out underwhelming so I'm not going to post them.  Also I never recorded what colours I used.  If you want to know I can probably guess for the NYC one but the one from last year might be a bit harder.

For NYC pride I actually did a string mani.  Well sort of. I used the same technique but instead of making it all neat I kind of just strung it everywhere :)  I also used a bunch of fine holographic glitter over the white before I added colour.

 

Left Hand

 Right Hand

For last years Toronto Pride I just used lots of colours and dots.  And of course I topped it all off with holo glitter!

Left Hand

Right Hand

Now the condom haul.  So at Pride if you're going to get one thing for free.  It's going to be condoms.

 

These are the condoms I got in Toronto.  Those black packages each have 2 in them.  So there is 7 there in total.

FACT: Those were being thrown out during the parade.  I actually had another pack but the lady next to me said "You have enough" and stuck her hand out.  You can never have enough!!!  I gave her a pack.  It's not my fault you can't catch.

Speaking of not having enough condoms.  This is what I got in NYC at their Pride market.  26 of these were in a single bag they handed me. TWENTY SIX! And my bag wasn't special.  EVERY BAG was loaded with condoms.  I ended up with 32 condoms (not all shown here)!