So this is the polish I got from Robyn on my Birthday! Yay! I LOVE this colour. Give me vampy and I'm all over it like a couple who takes PDA too far.
Germani-cure is a brownish red shimmer. Depending on the lighting it can look more of one then the other. It went on in 3 easy coats. Although I'm sure I could have gotten away with 2. Formula was perfection. While the flash makes it all pretty and shows off the shimmer, in most lighting it's deeper and darker, then in the sun or under flash. But let me just say either way this is a stunner.
This is for sure going in my list of favorites. It reminds me a lot of OPI's Royal Rajah Ruby(another fav). They aren't exactly the same. They are more like cousins.
If you like vampy shades I suggest you get this right NOW (after you finish reading this and look at the pictures).
Have you left to go buy yourself a bottle yet? GO! (Unless you own it)
So I love baseball. I grew up playing T-Ball and then softball, and growing up going to games was one of my favourite things. My grandmother and I would watch Toronto Blue Jays games from her bad in her nursing home, and my first memory is watching her squeal with glee over Pay Borders and his dirty hat. I have never been one to really follow or root for a specific team(though obviously my loyalty lies with the Jays for purely nostalgic reasons!) but I just love the sport.
So when my friend Stella and I went to a ball game the other night, our Jays vs the Yankees, I decided that we needed some ballpark nails. I went with the old Blue Jays logo(the new one is so boring!) and a little itty bitty Yankee logo on my pinky. We ended up trouncing those Yanks 6-0, though they did kick our asses last night.
But then.... GASP... Tragedy struck! My nail art brushes and dotting tools, they were missing! How was I going to do small details without tools? Well, I persevered, and I ended up doing the whole design(including the polka dots on the other hand) with the jaggy end of a bent hairpin. I think I did a pretty good job despite lack of tools :P
Polishes used: Orly Royal Navy, OPI Big Apple Red(for the shadow on the text and the red on the logo), Color Club French Tip(THE BEST WHITE EVER, I swear it's sorcery how perfect this formula was. What you see on my middle finger is one thin coat), Illamasqua Serenity, China Glaze Sea Spray, and a plain black stripe rite brush with some sliver glitter.
Pretty proud of my itty bitty maple leaf :P
Ran out of time so the other hand was just dotty, but I think I did a damn good dotting job given that I was using a craggy old bobby pin!
First off let me thank everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday the other day! I had a great night of drinking and karaoke. BUT the fun isn't over yet! Tonight I'm going out for a birthday dinner with a few friends, followed by dancing!
Originally I was going to do just a bit of nail art. Nothing too time consuming. Then out of no where I though "Beetlejuice nails...I need to do them!". I don't know why I wanted to do them I just did. Also it's a rule of thumb that you can do whatever you want on your birthday dinner. Minus murder, cow tipping and a full two act puppet show. Besides they go perfect with sushi right?
I actually started with a pure white cream. But that was patchy and gross, so I covered it up with Essie Moonstruck. I actually like how it wasn't a stark white because, Beetlejuices suit isn't exactly clean. Next I sponged on green acrylic paint, OPI Black Onyx and then Urban Outfitters Forest. So it kind of mimics the stuff growing on his face. Next I did all the stripes by hand with paint. Cutting tape to the perfect size was just too much of a pain. And I really liked how this turned out. Finally I added Beetlejuice's green hair to my ring fingers.
All in all I'm really pleased with this. Now all getting all excited thinking of Halloween and all the potential manicures!
Left Hand
Right hand
(L-R) Acrylic paint. OPI Black Onyx, Urban Outfitters Forest and Essie Moonstruck.
So like a lot of you, I've been following other bloggers doing the 30 day challenge, but I haven't been an active participant. But then the other night I went to a concert and had an idea for an "inspired by a song" manicure. I will also be doing a manicure inspired by my favourite movie, but I'm waiting til my nails are longer... So here we go! Cookies if any of you have already recognised the title of the song......
So one of my favourite singers is Missy Higgins, a gorgeous Aussie lady with a voice like warm honey and milk(Anyone? Just me? Okay...). She was in Toronto the other night with Katie Herzig and Butterfly Boucher. Missy's latest album, The Ol' Razzle Dazzle, came out not long ago, and one of the songs, The Cooling Of The Embers, really struck me. It's about dealing with dementia in a loved one, so not the cheeriest music in the world, but I love the beautiful imagery of a fire burning itself out, the embers cooling slowly.
I started with one coat of one of my favourite reds, OPI Big Apple Red, and then added one thin coat each of Cult Nails Seduction, Nubar 2010, and Finger Paints Twisted. I do own the mythical Cult Nails Clairvoyant, but I decided to leave it out of this mani. The three together really added to the "fire burning out" look. The main colour shift is orange to yellow to red, with flashes of green and blue, like white hot embers. I'm excited to see it in sunlight in the morning.
You might ask yourself, are 6 photos too many? Not when a manicure is as magical as this!
And you're only half here
like someone left a frail body and took the rest
But I remember when you were strong Never wanted help from no-one
So I was actually going to do some nail art today but due to ringing in my birthday with...vigorous activities I was too worn out by the time I got home.
So I did something you've all seen hundreds of times before. Max Factor Fantasy fire over Barry M's Indigo. I figured it's not crazy nail art but it's one of those combos you save for a some what special day.
I will probably do some nail art on Friday for when I have more birthday celebrations!
Indigo - Two coats, formula was REALLY good.
Ps. I'm amazing. I can say that today and only today.
Thank you for sticking around this long. Here's to 8375290394543789405.200 more.
Anyways I don't know what you do at 4am, but I know I attempt nail art.
So if you've read this blog for a while now you probably already know I LOVE Marmite. It's my salty elixir, from the yeasty gods(This post also now contains the WORST sentence ever used in this blog). Especially on grilled cheese. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... What I'm trying to say is if you can go and try some. You might like it. Maybe love it?
So I've wanted to do Marmite nails for a while now. But I always kind of shied away from it. Even if it's only on one nail, nail art that doesn't consist of lines or dots is a challenge for me. Small lettering frightens me like a Weeping Angels frighten Amy and Rory. Maybe it was because it was 4am and I was feeling bold I decided to just try doing a Marmite jar on my thumb(never intending to post it). And you know what? I didn't hate it(like Marmite!)! So I decided to do the rest of my nails Marmite themed and using my striping tape. And I put the love and hate on my index and pinky finger because you wither 'Love It or Hate It'. The ring finger is gold because you can currently get limited edition jar with gold coloured flecks in it!
All in all it's not my best manicure BUT I did step out of my comfort zone by actually trying some more detailed stuff!
(L-R) OPI Black Onyx, acrylic paints, Essie Pretty Edgy, Sally Hansen Gilty Pleasure and gold striping tape.
So Cult Nails have fast established themselves as one of my favourite brands. Compared to others, their polishes wear beautifully, and Maria comes up with colours that are both unique and totally wearable. And let's not forget that fabulous formula that just GLIDES onto the nail.
So I was a little bit skeptical when I saw that Maria's 13-year-old daughter Coco was creating her own collection. I was a little worried it would be too obnoxious even for me! Well, obviously I was wrong because I bought two of the polishes. You already saw Annalicious... so I present I Got Distracted!
Now, for people who know me, this would be almost criminally hilarious. My former college roommate won't let me sit facing reflective surfaces when we go out to eat together because I'll get distracted by reflections of TVs, people walking by, all sorts of things. I am nothing if not easily distracted. I have, as Robyn(guest blogger extraordinaire) says, "the attention span of a fly".
This polish is amazing. Seriously one of the most amazing polishes I've ever owned. It's a black jelly base with holographic microglitter, green microglitter, and larger green hexes. It comes alive in the light and kind of looks like a witch's cauldron, simmering away with some wonderful magic. This is two thin coats with Wicked Fast topcoat.
Macro shot! Knocked my tips a little, but check out those beautiful glitters!
So you all know about my love/hate(more hate) relationship with Zoya polishes. Much like Lippmann, Zoyas chip on me in HOURS. Like, just so fast. It's rage inducing to paint your nails a gorgeous new colour only to have to take it all off before you're able to wear it out of the house. I very rarely buy Zoyas because I never wanted to have to buy a separate base and top coat just to use them. I think brands like Zoya can afford to step up their game and make polishes that work with other top and base coats. Come on, guys. It's not hard.
BUT recently I decided to go for it and I swapped for the Zoya Colour Lock system, so I decided to get myself a new Zoya to test it out. I decided on FeiFei really easily, it was just so interesting that I knew I needed it, even if it never left my house. FeiFei is a true chameleon, one of the nicest polishes I've ever seen. A grey(I THINK) base with lots of blue, purple, green, and gold. Every time it hit the light I got a different colour. I love this so much.
So the big question, how did the base a top coat fare? Well... Better than usual, but nothing terribly amazing. I wore it for three days, had a very small chip on day two and a larger chip on my thumb on day three. I tried the "system" with Charla and Mimi in recent days as well to similar results. So Zoya with it's special and fancy "Colour Lock" system lasts for less time on average than A England with whatever I have lying around. Sure, I'm impressed, but only because anything longer than two hours with Zoya on is practially a miracle for me.
Natural low light. LOOK AT THOSE COLOURS DO YOU SEE ALL THE COLOURS?????
Tonight I'm dressing like a high class lady of the night all pretty for a good friends birthday! Because if you're gonna be smashing back fancy beers you might as well look somewhat presentable.
I decided I wanted to do something with striping tape. I already did a mani with it where I put the tape down, painted it, then removed it. It was ok I guess. But this time I wanted to actually use the tape in the manicure. Originally I wanted to do this with red, but for some reason I just couldn't come up with a combo I was happy with. So I went with blue.
First I did 2-3 coat of Ruby kissed Blue My Mind (Ba dum chhh...) depending on the finger, then I did a coat of Essie's Smooth Sailing starting half way up the nail-ish. Next I used Chanel Graphite and did the tips the size I would usually for plain french tips. Maybe a tiny bit bigger. Finally after top coat I waited for it to dry a bit and then I placed the tape across and sealed it in with another layer of top coat.
This was super easy. You can easily freehand each colour because the tape hides your flaws!
Yup I'm going to be the classiest dame at the ball.
(L-R)Ruby Kisses - Blue My Mind, Essie - Smooth Sailing, Chanel - Graphite
