Oh Canada!

Today is Canada Day! Which means it's time for a Canadian manicure! I say that like I do something every year, when in reality this is a first. And I wont lie, it's mainly because I find the maple leaf complicated to draw. It's easy, but even easier to mess up. So I was thrilled that I had a maple leaf stamp to use from The Born Pretty Store.

Honestly though, the manicure is just ok. I used Barry M Blood Orange for the solid red, and I used Essie Fishnet stockings for the stamping, as Blood Orange was horrible to stamp with. Then I just added OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls to the red nails. I also used that as a base for the stamping. The red was streaking all over the place 1)Because that red has a tendency to bleed and streak and 2)I had JUST thinned out my top coat, and it's more watery consistency did not help the cause :/

What do you think? Have I failed the country I love so much?

PS. I feel so bad I'm running a couple days late with a review post, but I have no light box which is making photos harder to take. Hopefully in the next couple of days I will have one. It will make taking photos soooooooo much easier!

PS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROBYN!

Well look what we have here: Poison Claws

Even when I don't post on here for a while I am pretty much always taking photos of my nails when I do them. And I always upload them, and I'll say to myself "I'll write about you eventually".  Usually I get around to it, but today I have a manicure that I TOTALLY forgot I did till looking through my photos.

First is Dior Poison. This is a beautiful deep purple cream. It falls in that almost black, but not category. In person it is VERY dark, but it is clear that it is purple. Application was super easy 2 coats, as it is with all my Dior polishe's. To finish it off, and add a little flair, I added some Barry M Majesty. I think these two colours go together perfectly. And it's manicures like this that make me miss my longer nails.

Barry M Blood Orange: Red, Glorious Red!

So when I'm in a rush my go to polish is anything textured, because they usually dry fast and are pretty. When I'm not in a rush, but I have no clue what polish to wear my go to is a red of some sorts. I have said this before and I will say this again, but a red just does something to you. It's like bold red lips, there's just something so classic and sexy about them that makes you feel great.

Today I have Barry M's Blood Orange, from the Gelly Nail Effects line. It's a beautiful classic red polish. I used two coats for full opacity, and the finish like all the other polishes from the Gelly line was super shiny. That being said you should know that I always photograph these with top coat and it pretty much looks the same. I just add it for protection mostly. My only "complaint" really's isn't just a Barry M polish thing, it's a red polish thing. I find red polishes tend to stain like MAD when you do clean up or take them off, so you have to be careful. It's the reason why by my cuticles you see red. It's from my previous manicure.

Overall if you are in need of a good classic red, and you can get your hands on this, it's a great option.

Zoya Tomoko - Let's Compare

So for the past four days most of my food has involved putting kimchi on it. I'm officially obsessed with it, and I am pretty sure you can put it on anything and it will taste fantastic. Kimchi Stew, Fantastic. Kimchi Risotto, exquisite. Kimchi Ice Cream, a taste like none other. Ok well the last one may not work as well, but the others sure do!

Today I have Zoya Tomoko. Now I love textured polishes, and I was admit I was a bit hesitant to buy any at first. Am I glad I ever took the plunge because I love all the ones I have. They look stunning, you can top coat them, and they dry super fast. This was no exception. Tomoko is a fine champagne gold texture polish. In my swatches I used 2 coats, both of which applied easily. If you would like to smooth this out you will need around 2 thick or 3 normal coats of top coat.

No topcoat

 Topcoat

Tomoko, reminded me of Barry M Majesty. Now I knew from the get go that they weren't dupes, but I decided to compare them side by side either way. They are both champagne golds, but Majesty is slightly deeper. The formula on Majesty is a bit thicker than Tomoko, but they were both just as easy to apply. Tomoko is a bit more glitter hungry when topcoated. Finally the biggest difference is while Tomoko is just fine glitter, Majesty is both fine and larger glitter.  Oh and Majesty is a bit harder to take off because of the larger pieces of glitter. One thing they did have in common was since they are both soooooooo jam packed full of glitter I find they look less textured then they actually are.

Oh...

So this weeks A-Z challenge(N for New) was actually an accident. Originally I was just going to swatch Rose Hip, as Valentines day was coming up and this was one of the few pinks I own. I decided I wanted to add a kiss decal to the swatch as I felt like it wouldn't away from it, and it would be Valentine-y. Huge mistake. Turns out I hate how the kiss looks on the nail. So in order to fix this I quickly had to turn this into something new. So I added Barry M Majesty, to cover up the kisses, as well adding it to make dots on all the other fingers. Now It's not crazy nail art, but it's simple and pretty!

Rose Hip, a pale pink pastel, went on easily. It was 3 coats, because the first two were patchy, but I kind of expected that from a pastel. Despite that I was pleased with the formula and didn't have any issues with the actual application. I am not a big fan of pink polishes, but when I do find one I like, it is usually a pale pink like this.

Yucky decal. BLAH!

 Much better!

Check out all the A-Z challenge participants!

An InLinkz Link-up

Unintentional Wear Test - Barry M Majesty

As usual I am late with my A-Z challenge this week, but I have a good reason! Thursday I was going to do it, but then I had to transcribe a video. I don't know if you know anything about transcribing videos, but it is tedious. You sit there and type word for word what someone is saying, and what time in the video they started talking, and when they ended. Transcribing 5 minutes of dialogue takes about an hour, maybe a bit more. And if I have learnt anything from this it's clear to me that we say "Um" too much. Anyways through it all the polish I wore was Barry M Majesty. I ended up wearing the polish for days. Normally I would have wanted to take it off sooner, but it lasted sooooooo long.

Majesty is a champagne gold, textured glitter with both fine glitter and larger pieces. I goes on the nail a bit darker than the bottle looks. I used 2 easy coats, and it dried in no time at all. At the end of day two I put on 2 coats of clear polish and one coat of top coat.  It smoothed out easily. So easily that had I known I could have used only one coat of clear and one coat of top coat. It wore like iron for almost 7 days before it chipped. A+ from me!

No Topcoat Day 1

 Topcoat Day 6

Simply Love - Barry M Blackberry

Again please forgive my photos. I am still playing around with my camera. If anyone has any tips on how to get sharper images on a DSLR let me know. I'm getting better, but most of the time the bottle will be in focus and the nails not.

Today I have the first swatch of 2015! Yes that is right. I am the first person to swatch anything in the year 2015! I'm just a little late posting it :P

Today I have Barry M Blackberry from their Gelly Hi-Shine line. Blacberry is a dark royal blue, along the same lines of the TARDIS(9 and 10's TARDIS). To get full coverage I used two coats, but it comes very close to being a one coater. Application was easy as 1,2,3 and clean up did not leave me with Smurf cuticles. This will be perfect if it doesn't stain when I remove it. Without topcoat this polish was super shiny(as Hi-Shine implies), but I ended up using TC, because I don't take chances.

Overall I loved this polish, and it is another reason Barry M is one of my favourite drug store brands. What is your favourite drug store brand?

LynBDesigns - Ghostlike Charms

Here is my fourth polish from LynBDesigns The Nightmare Begins collection!

Ghostlike Charms is a sheer, cloudy polish, full of purple micro shimmer.  It also has silver and holographic glitter, in small squares, hex's and bars.

I don't know what it is but recently I have been really digging these more girly, soft colours.  I mean it's not something I would wear most of the time, but considering there was a time I wouldn't even consider wearing stuff like this.

I first decided to layer it over something dark, so I used Barry M's Dusky Mauve.  It also has similar fine shimmer but it's fine enough that the cloudyness covered it.  I used 2 coats of Ghostlike Charms and I liked it.  But I must say I loved when I put 2 coats over OPI's My Pointe Exactly.  I thought this sheer gray would go perfectly with this.  And you know what?  It did.  In person I could not stop looking at it.  Although if I wear that combo again I either need to buff my nails or do another coat of the OPI(which I don't want to do because that takes at least 4 coats for full opacity).  My nails kinda made the manicure a little less stunning because the undies were so sheer and you could sort of see the yellow stains on my nails... :S

If you would like a bottle of this you can head over to LynBDesigns Etsy shop.  Polishes retail from between $8-$10USD.

*Product sent for honest review

Copper Lady Liberty - This is a science post...but not really.

Just a bit of simple nail art for you guys this weekend.  It's a combination of the last 2 polishes I swatched(Bondi Lady Liberty and Barry M Copper).  I actually had a very good reason for putting these two colours together. 1) I just liked how they looked and 2) While The Statue of Liberty currently has a green-blue colour to her, she is copper.  So she originally looked copper but then the copper began to oxidize which is why she looks the way she looks now!

Barry M - Copper ft. Creepy men

If I had a copper penny for ever creepy man I've encountered I would have quite a few.  A few days ago I was at a train station, sitting by myself, and a guy approached me.  Mind you the station wasn't busy, but it was also far from dead.  Anyways he stood sort of in front of me for a minute trying to get my attention, but I was "doing things" on my phone.  I then briefly looked up, and apparently that meant "Yes, take a seat, and start talking".  So he sat down, and said "Hey girl I was just-" and that's when he started stroking my arm.  I immediately got up and said "Nope" and walked away.  Almost as soon as I got up and started walking away he sprung up and was borderline jogging away.  I think he thought I was going to call for security.

Anyways on the topic of copper here is Barry M Copper.  There is nothing creepy or sketchy about this colour.  Depending on how you look at it Copper can either be copper, lean more towards brown, or gold, with hits of green and pink.  It has a foil finish and it is beautiful.  It came out last summer and I have had it for quite some time.  This is another why didn't I wear this before polish.  And on top of that it had amazing wear.  I had it on for 5 days(no basecoat) and all I had was a bit of tip wear.

Now I have heard this is a dupe for OPI Warm and Fozzy but since I don't own it I can't say for sure.  But I can say that from photos I've seen they are pretty close. Either way I am glad I have this!

 

Natural light

Note:  Sorry this took so long to post.

Femme Fatale - Spindleweb: Choosing nail polish undies is EXACTLY like choosing a wedding dress.

You know how they have those TV shows were we get to watch people choose their wedding dress?  And the moment they find their wedding dress they start sobbing. Well when I was trying to figure out what was the best base for Spindleweb was tried 4 different bases, the last one being Barry M Racing Green.  And that's when I understood what it was like to be a future bride... but not really. I saw them together and I thought "This is perfect".  I then wept... but not really. They just played so well together!

Femme Fatales Spindle web is of course a glitter.  It has a green tinted base full of green shimmer.  It is also totally composed of hex glitter ranging from tiny to large. They come in blue, green and lavender(although these pieces only come in tiny). And they range from matte to iridescent.  The formula on this was a tad tricky at first, as it was a bit thick.  But a couple drops of thinner cleared all of that up.  Either way I only ended up having to use 1 coat.  So far this is probably my favourite colour I have tried from them.  It reminds me of a murky but pretty swamp.

If you would like a bottle full size bottles are 12ml and you can find them online at Llarowe (USA), Harlow & Co (Canada),Shoppe Eclecticco & Beauty so Fly (Singapore), Ledouxnuage (France) and Norway Nails (Norway).  They are $13 USD but of course that price will vary slightly depending where you get them. And if you are in Australia you can order straight through them!

Ps.  Don't mind near my cuticles.  The Seche started to shrink the polish :(

 Sunlight/natural light

 Lightbox

*Product sent for honest review

Sailor Scouts!

I was going to post this earlier but the weather has been HORRIBLE here.  I didn't have any power for quite a few hours last night and the internet didn't work.  This morning the power was back but the internet wasn't.  I eventually went out in the afternoon and right before I left the internet came back on! Yay!  On the bright side(and this has nothing to do with the weather but) our tumblr passed 1000 followers! :):):)

I've talked about this before but I do a fan fiction show once a month where sketch troupes read fan fiction.  This month was Sailor Moon.  While I wasn't a huge fan growing up I did watch it enough that I was excited about this show.

I decided to do Sailor Scout nails.  I used the top half of their outfits.  For the most part I free handed most of this with acrylic paint.  Which is quite new for me as you can probably see.  Generally my nail art is dots, lines, blobs or drawn on with a pen, simple things.  And while this wasn't hard it was for sure something different for me.  I enjoyed it, and maybe I should do more actual freehanded designs!  I also ended up using Barry M Navy, and Racing Green, NK Vibrant Orange and I don't remember the red at the moment.

Sailor Mars, Sailor Venus, Sailor Moon, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Mercury

Also this happened at the show.  We had a majestic transformation scene!

Ps. Happy Birthday Jason (Orange...You know from Take That...if you have entered our giveaways you would know...or if you like Take That)

Barry M - Racing Green

First off sorry I haven't been able to post or even comment on anyone else's blogs.  And thank you everyone that posted on my last post.  I'm glad you liked my stamping :) My week has been super busy and so will the next one due to rehearsals and shows.  Also this has nothing to do with my lack of blogging activity but I just got a night guard due to clenching my mouth constantly.  It's yucky.

Anyways I did these nails maybe a month ago and they have been sitting on my laptop since then.  Racing Green is not a true racing green in my opinion.  It's close but not exact.  It's a deep green with fine green and gold shimmer(which I don't think you can see in the photos).  What makes this not a true racing green is that it has blue undertones.  You can kind of see it in the photos.  I used 2 coats for full opacity.

Fun fact:  I took maybe 200 pictures of this.  I was convinced all my pictures were coming out blue.  Turns out none of them really did.  It was either my screen, my bad eyes or a combination of the 2.

If You Like Twilight...I Don't Think You'll Like This Post. BUT If You Like Twilight/Mortal Kombat Corssovers You Should Stay. (Aka Vampire Nails Pt. 1)

So every month I with go to or participate in a show that is just comedians reading fan fiction (usually really bad stuff).  This month the fandom we focused on was Twilight.  My sketch troupe read this.  It's a crossover between Twilight and Mortal Combat.   It was AMAZING. If anything you should read the last chapter just for the authors note.  BTW if you know any good(bad) Doctor Who fan fiction you should link me to it as there is a Doctor Who show soon :)

Anyways my left hand was dedicated to "real" vampires.  I decided to take some inspiration from over at The Daily Nail. And do fang nails.  I first painted my nails all white.  Then with a fan brush dipped in acetone I went over it with Cult Nails Quench, Barry M Red Black, and OPI's Royal Rajah Ruby.  Until I got the look I wanted.  I was going for the blood coloured teeth look.  When the vampire shows their teeth right after they have sucked blood.

On my right hand I used some Nailene polish from their french manicure kit and China Glazes Fairy dust.  Because Edward sparkles.  WTF Stephanie Myers? WTF?

 

I didn't file my own nails.  I used false nails and placed them on 2/3 of my nails and filed them from there.  So there was no giant hump when the fake nail ended I filled in the part over my own nail with some old Seche Vite.

I'll show you how I used the fangs again in my next post (Because I wasn't going to partially destroy my nails for just one manicure).