What's that saying again? Ah yes! 5th times the charm...

So last Friday I left my phone at the boys place and have yet to pick it up.  Only now do I realize how often I check my emails, as I keep reaching for it.  And yes I know I can check my laptop, but that means changing accounts which is a (vary minor, but still very real) pain in the ass.  I also miss my Candy Crush.  I have been on Level 500 for over a month now, and I fear my cousin will have over taken me when I get back.  I feel we have some sort of unspoken Candy Crush war going on.  I am ok with that.

Today I have some nail art foil from KKcenterHk.  Now I have tried nail foils before but it has never been successful.  Turns out you need a special glue!  Which I am pleased to say KKcenterHk was kind enough to send me.  But despite this it still took a bit of trial an error.

Attempt 1: I didn't want to use up any of my new insane holo foil, so I decided to experiment with the KKcenterHk glue,  and some older foil that I had received from elsewhere.  Left the glue on till it was no longer white, and it worked like a charm.

Attempt 2: Tried to do some cool claw looking reverse french with the KKcenterHk foil.  Epic fail.  I did it the same way I had the previous time but it would NOT stick.

Attempt 3:  I thought maybe it was a drying time thing.  I read that leaving the glue on for a least 5 minutes was good.  So I tried that and used my older foil and the KKCenter Hk foil.  Old foil, perfect.  KKcenterHK, Nadda.

Attempt 4:  I'm getting frustrated by now.  I leave it on for just over 5 minutes this time, and the one big change was I ripped it off like a band aid.  Success!  Add SH quickdry topcoat.  I get's all weird and sticky and the finish get's messed up.

Attempt 5(which is what you are going to see):  I left the glue on for 5 minutes in this cool claw like pattern, placed the foil on top, rubbed it on with a cotton ball and my finger, and ripped it odd quickly.  Tried SV as a topcoat this time.  SUCCESS!  *5 minutes later*  "Where did the holo go?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?"

Left hand, with Seche Vite :(

Right hand, no topcoat :)

So as I learnt, different foils may act differently.  My older foil easily came off when rubbed on the nail, and carefully removed.  Where as this one needed to be taken off quickly for it to stick.  Also I now know that top coat does not always play nice with foils :(  Anyone know of topcoat that plays well with foils?

Over all I really like this and am much more pleased with this mani then I was the first time I tried foils.  The top coat issue stinks, but hopefully I can find something that works well with foils.  Because one I got the hand of applying foils, it's pretty easy and fun!  If you would like this you can head on over to KKcenterHk.  If you want just the foil it's $6.92, the foil and a small glue $8.86, and for the foil and a regular size glue $10.80 (All in USD).

China Glaze So Blue Without You: The Tea Incident. ALWAYS USE YOUR BRAIN!

So the other day I decided to have a nice, hot cup of tea.  Then I did something stupid.  AS SOON as I made it, without thinking, I took a huge sip.  Liquid that had less than a couple minutes earlier been boiling.  Immediately I spat it out all over myself, the dinner table and a chair and got a glass of cold water.  It was the worst.  And to make matters even better, two days later my tongue just started to seep blood.  It's been about 5 days now and it still feels weird but it doesn't hurt.  Lesson Learnt.  Always use your brain when doing anything.

Anyways you know what scolding drinks remind me of?  Christmas!  Today's polish China Glaze's So Blue Without You was sent to me by Nail Polish Canada.  It came with 2 other polishes in China Glaze's Dash of Dazzle gift set trio, and is also part of their 2013 Christmas collection.  So Blue Without You in an icy blue metallic foil.  It applied in 2 easy coats.  Word of warning.  I swatched this without base coat, and despite only wearing it for a few minutes I could see that it was beginning to stain.  So if that's not a thing you are fine with base coat is for sure something you will want to wear unless you want Smurf fingers.

I also decided to compare So Blue to Orly's Sweet Peacock.   They are close and look like they could be related.  Application was also pretty much the same for the two.  But is you can see Sweet Peacock is a deeper, dare I say peacock blue. 

If you would like to polish the Dash of Dazzle Trio you can get it over at Nail Polish Canada for $15.00CND.  Or you can buy the polish on it's own for $6.95CND.  And for a limited time all orders(no matter what the price) will be shipped for free within Canada!

Tell me you deep dark feeling of metallic blues.
*Product sent for honest review.

Revlon Metallic: What are you doing?

I'm on a metallic roll!

Now normally I'm not a huge fan of Revlon BUT I found this for $1!  And I figured I didn't have anything like this so why not.

Metallic is a silver foil.  I only needed 2 coats for this, although I should add it did bubble.  I think it was because my coats were a bit too thick, but the bubbles weren't massive so I had an easy fix(When the polish is dry, but still somewhat tacky, gently rub the polish to smooth it out).  Now my big problem with this polish actually came almost two days after originally putting this on.  I decided to do some bad ass nail art to spice it up.  This involved putting more top coat(Seche Vite) on.  About 5 minutes after I put the top coat on the polish started to lift like CRAZY around the edges.  I eventually got them under control with some acetone.   I have never had this happen with a polish before.  This is also weird because I originally put Seche on when I wore the colour on it's own and nothing happened.

Has anyone had their polish lift up after you put on top cat(this is a typo that I liked)?  Has anyone ever decided to forgo tocoat and instead use a cat?

Lightbox

Sunlight

 

You can see the lifting around the edges.  Also the polish looks a bit off because I edited out the nail art :P

OPI Swimsuit... Nailed it! and Last Friday Night

So I love blue.  I think it's a beautiful colour and it really reminds me of summer.  I wear so much blue in the summer, and this is one of my favourites!

When the Miss Universe collection came out, I was kind of lukewarm.  I was excited about the glitter, because it's me and I'm always excited about glitter, but the other colours just bored me from the promo shots.

And then I saw Swimsuit...Nailed it.  And we became best friends.  It's PERFECT.  A beautiful blue foil that simply glows from within.  I have loved previously wearing it with a coat of a holographic glitter, like Servin' Up Sparkle, but I decided to try it with Last Friday Night from the Katy Perry collection(one of my top layering polishes!) and I am loving it.  The opalescent glitter shows so many colours and really catches the light beautifully.  It looks like the ocean.  Really gorgeous.

This is two coats of Swimsuit... Nailed It, and then a Last Friday Night gradient on top.

I freaking love instagram.  So easy to share my nails and baking joy <3

@likeyoursilence 

Indoor lighting. 

The rest of the photos are outdoor, natural light.

Do you guys like this as much as I do?  What would YOU layer over Swimsuit... Nailed It?

Battle of the Graphite dupes... Can you tell them apart?

Today I have a post I was hoping I'd be able to do at some point.. Showing off the two much-touted Graphite dupes together at last.  You know which two I mean:  OPI Number One Nemesis and Jessica Smoky Feather.  I've seen a lot of posts comparing one with Graphite(which Kas owns but I don't), so we know how they stack up in that regard, but what we DON'T know is how they stack up against one another.  So that's what today is about!

Like I tweeted last night, from the bottles alone, they're not dupes.  And on the nail, I think that's also true, but they are close.  I think 99% of you would probably be happy with owning one or the other.  I know which one I prefer.

So, first some bottle shots:

 (artificial light)

 (sunlight)

Okay, here we go!  So, as is the way with posts like these, I am wearing the Jessica on two fingers and the OPI on the other two.  

There are two coats of each, though one of them needs a third.  One is sparklier, one is more foil-y. One is bluer, one is greener.  

Can you tell which polish is which?  See if you're right after the jump.