Ghoulish Ghosts

October 12th, 2015

Some glow in the dark ghosties. This one was easy and fast.

Colours:

O.P.I. "Stranger Tides"
Sally Hansen "Black Out"
China Glaze "Something's Brewing"

Valentine's Day Design #2

As the title states, this is the second design I have for Valentine's Day 2015. More of a mix n' match this time around.

Colours used:

"Sheer Pink" by Kleancolor
"Love is in the Air" by Kleancolor

"Don't Touch My Tutu!" by O.P.I.

Howlite

These were a lot of work, but well worth it. They are not close visually to the reference I used but I love them regardless. Howlite, or as some may know it "White turquoise" is a really beautiful stone.

Butterflies

I wish I had more butterfly stickers.

July/14/2013

The base I used is "Steady as She Rose" by OPI. The butterflies I purchased from the Born Pretty Store. They are actually water decals, and at first I wondered if they would actually adhere to nail polish, but they worked beautifully. I just wish I had more.

Soft Water-less Marble

I find it so weird trying to type on my laptop since my work computer is completely different.

Also, it sucks that I missed last week, both LGBTQ pride AND Canada Day. I didn't get a chance to since my new furbaby wanted to play with my brushes.

Here's a simple and easy one:

July/07/2013

A super easy water-less marble, better known as "needle-dragging" except I used a brush in place of a needle.

I used "You Callin' Me a Lyre" by OPI as a base, with "Fairy Dust" (China Glaze), "Disco Ball" (Sally Hansen) and "French White Creme" (Wet n' Wild) for this.

Watercolour and Roses

I really wanted a floral, specifically cute little roses this week.

June/16/2013 to June/22/2013

The watercolour nails look like my bedspread hahah. I did those by using acetone to water down the polishes and that's how they made that blended look. I did roses on my thumb and ring finger, although it would've looked nicer if I went blue and purple flowers as opposed to pink and yellow.

On a side note, I cut into my middle finger with a butcher's knife last week while trying to chop up some stuff, so you won't be seeing that finger in my posts for a while until it has healed up.

Colours used:

"Don't Touch My Tutu" O.P.I

"Posh Plum" Sally Hansen

"Va Va Voom" Orly

"Blue Sparrow(Neon)" China Glaze
"Turned up Turquoise (Neon)" China Glaze

And some silver holo glitter bought at a local craft store.

Spring Flowers

It's officially spring!!! I'm so happy! Finally this snow shall melt and lead to beautiful flowers and double digits! To ring in the spring, here's a floral manicure!

March/31/2013

I apologize for the photo quality, I was in a rush and didn't manage to get a good photo of these with my proper camera before running out the door.

The base colour I used was "Don't Touch My Tutu" by OPI. With some purple and blue flowers done in acrylic paint. Very simple, and fast, although I plan to revisit this in the future, next time I will make the colours brighter looking.

Red and Gold Hearts

Here's a  pretty Valentine's design:

Feb/04/2013

Thumb Close up.

So the base colour I used for these is "You Callin' Me a Lyre" by OPI, with a glitter gradient created in "Syngery" (Gold) and "Animate" (Red) by L.A. Girl Glitter. The hearts were done using acrylic paint in red and gold, but you can substitute for red/gold nail polishes if you don't have paint. Excuse the blue stain on my thumb nail, I managed to get some ink there. I hope you enjoy these nails, and remember they work well on any nail shape!

Happy Monday!

Let it Snow!

Still no snow here in Ontario, at least not for those of us in the GTA. Kind of depressing, but then I realize, I can make my own.

Dec/15/2012

These were quick, as I used Konad stamps, the snowflake ones from plate M59? with Konad's "White" and "Silver Sweep" by Sally Hansen. They were done on a base of "Royal" by Revlon, and on a couple of fingers you see the multi-sized glitter "Pirouette My Whistle" by OPI. Quick, easy and filled my desire for snow. As long as I don't have to drive in the stuff.

Also, here's a photo of our little baby budgie pals, Pickle(blue) and Salsa (green):

Pickle(blue) and Salsa(green)

As I flip through the photos of these birdies, I notice that Pickle always has the same look on his face. In, EVERY single photo.

Flashback Friday: Ferns

This didn't turn out quite right. My "Flashback Fridays" are quickly turning into nail fails.

September 12th, 2012

Base colour is "Gouda Gouda Two Shoes" by OPI. I tried some ferns on the one nail, but it ended up being too much and very smudged looking. The other nails turned out fine though, I like the gold decorative swirls.

Happy Jack-o-lanterns

My first idea failed, so here are some simple Jack-o-lanterns instead!

Just something really simple. The base colour is "Hi Pumpkin" by OPI. The black sheer glitter you see ombred on the other nails is a glitter polish I made. I'm calling it "Juvenile Batfish" after the glitter mixture I purchased from an eBay seller.

Ghoulish Ghosts

My gorgeous friend Sam wanted some Halloween nails done. She asked for little ghosties.

Oct/12/2012

 She also wanted her nails longer, so we decided UV gel sculpted tips would be best, partially because I`m not fond of acrylic.

Thumbs.

Ahh, I love the little ghosties on her thumbs. They are just adorable. Now after I gave her a gel set + extensions, I painted the base colours: `Mourning Glory`and `Hi Pumpkin!`from OPI`s Halloween 2012 mini set. I added some `Fairy Dust`(China Glaze) to the black nails and gave her the ghosts on the others. Overall a cute manicure for Halloween.

Frankenstein

Another Halloween one, this one is very pretty with a bit of a twist.

Whole Hand

 I did accent nails again. I like the sponging/glitter effect I have on my index, middle and pinky fingers, alone they would make a very pretty manicure, but I also love Frankenstein's face on my thumb and ring fingers.

As usual, all hand painted by me, with no use of decals or stamping.

The colours that I used were:

OPI "On Stranger Tides" (the base colour)

China Glaze "Holly-Day"

China Glaze "Foxy"

Nina Ultra Pro "Mossy Britches"

Sally Hansen eXtreme Wear " Saturday Night Fever"

L.A. Girl Glitter Addict "Synergy"

L.A. Girl Glitter Addict "Flash"

Dexter

This is the first Halloween mani of 2012! I like the whole splatter polish technique, because its simple, quick and not as messy as a water marble (my opinion). So here we go!

October/07/2012 Whole Hand

 And of course, because Dexter is back for a 7th season, I had to do a tribute to my favourite Blood Splatter Analyst/Serial Killer, of any fictional work.

Main Four

 So the exciting bit here for me, is that this was done 100% with nail polish, no acrylic paint, I used a straw for the splatters, a dotting tool for the little hand print and blood drips, and dipped a finger into it for the finger print smudges. Exciting stuff no?

Thumb Close up

Alright, the base colour used was "You Callin' Me a Lyre?" by O.P.I., I used two reds here: "Poinsettia" by China Glaze and "Marooned" by Ocean. Overall I like how they look, and it's weird that I get giddy everytime I look at them, because I think Halloween is Coming!

On a side note, I'm going to stop posting the "Flashback Friday" posts, and just post the manicures when I do them. It'll be easier for me than trying to wrack my brain for when they were done. Although I do plan on swatching my collection so you should be kept busy with that at least.

First Week of Fall

Yesterday we rang in the first day of Fall!! And you know what that means, HALLOWEEN!

So to kick off autumn, I have a mildy themed Halloween mani to show you, plus OPI's "So So Skullicious" mini polish set.

OPI So So Skullicious

 I only bought this mini collection because of it's packaging. Shameful yes, considering these colours are fairly easy to come by, except maybe the orange. But, honestly, that packaging is adorable. This set contains 4 mini nail polish colours, and a set of small sugar skull water nail art decals. They were cute, but I haven't come up with a way to use them yet.

Close up on Colour names.

 This little mini set came with the above 4 colours: "Hi Pumpkin!", "A-Rose From the Dead", "Mourning Glory" and "Candlelight". "Hi Pumpkin!" is a perfect pumpkin coloured creme orange, it's very opaque on which is nice. "A-Rose from the Dead" is a basic pink creme, opaque after 2 coats, it's nice but I'm sure I already have this shade somewhere in my collection. "Mourning Glory" is a creme black, very common. And "Candlelight" is a nice sheer yellow, it took 3 coats to become opaque, it feels warmer toned than other yellows I've used.

Sept/24/2012

This mani was done using all the colours from the mini set. I did some colour sponging on my middle and pinky fingers and it created this nice fall mesh look. On top of that I added some outlined roses in a dark burgundy and white. The index finger has a cute little skull peeking out from one corner surrounded by more rose outlines. It's cute and very mix n match, which is kind of why I like it. I like how the skull is my way of hinting that Halloween is on it's way. I'm so excited.

"A-rose from the Dead" Index finger.

"Candlelight", "Mourning Glory", "Hi Pumpkin!" and "A-Rose from the Dead" Middle, and Pinky nails

"Mourning Glory" on the Ring Finger.

Bouquet of Roses

Another simple one for today. Don't worry I have some awesome Halloween designs coming up soon.

Sept/16/2012

The base colour is 3 coats of OPI's "Don't Touch My Tutu" with some simple gold roses painted on top. Really simple, really fresh and also pretty easy to do, it's just a bunch of curved lines.

Have a Happy Monday!

Carly's Cozu Melted In the Sun

August/17/2012

Carly's paws again! Woot! She graced me with her lovely paws so I could give her an acrylic set, to help me prep for my Nail Technology exam the next day. Which was awesome of her. She went with a subtle, yet gorgeous shade called "Cozu Melted in the Sun" by O.P.I. And we added some little fimo flowers hand-sliced from the cane and some little rhinestones for some added bling.

When Carly is not getting her nails done you can find her reading and blogging here: A Little Bit of Everything.

Flashback Friday: Wooden Shoe Like To Know? OPI

Today, I bring you the lovely paws of my darling cousin Shaheena. She's studying to be a doctor :) And is not afraid of the sparkly! Enjoy!

Close up.

Both Hands

Close up on the Pinky.

So for this, I was mostly practising a Spa-style manicure that school taught me. It was mostly about getting my time right as well as keeping all the steps. All in all it took me a touch over 45 min (not good, I should be at 45min or under). On to the polish! The base colour is OPI's "Wooden Show Like To Know?"; its a beautiful creamy brown with coppery-gold shimmer. I put one layer of "Sparkling" by Revlon over top to give her extra bling, as she never does her nails. I like this combination quite a bit, very subtle, and elegant.

Flashback Friday: You Callin Me a Lyre

April/26/2012

3 thickish coats of O.P.I's "You Callin' Me a Lyre" from their NYC Ballet Collection. On top of that is one coat of Revlon's "Sparkling". OPI's "YCML" is a nice sheer pastel pink, it would be good for french manicures and days when I'm too lazy to wear anything fun, but still want polish on them.

Dinosaurs

This week I went for something simple, since I've had a lot of heavy art nails lately. Here's a raptor skeleton for you. He looks more like a dragon to me, but w/e. The base colour is OPI's "Cozu Melted in the Sun".