The Neverending Pile, Day 1: Glitter

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my first post in the new Challenge I am participating in, called The Neverending Pile Challenge (NPC), which means I need to get into posting more frequently(every Monday, Wednesday and Friday).  It also means my untried pile will finally shrink. Today's prompt is Glitter.

I am not a huge glitter fan, so most of what I have I either bought because I loved it, came as part of a set, or my mother bought them for me.  The one that I chose is one that I got as part of a set.  This is Color Club's Savoy Nights.

Savoy Nights has a thick base that is lightly tinted blue but is totally translucent with tonnes and tonnes of micro and medium silver hex glitter.  Please excuse my messed up pinky, it smudged before I took my first photo.  It took 3 coats to be opaque...it might be better if I did a base first, because the first coat when the glitter was scattered actually looked pretty.

I can see why this was an untried, it is not a win, it looks too messy and all the medium hex glitter seems to have curled.  This may be one that I give to my niece, now that I have tried it.

That is all for today, but I will be back on Wednesday with the next prompt, which is pastel.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go. Day 22: Surrealism

Hello polish lovers!

Today's prompt in the challenge is Surrealism, and I have fallen in love with these nails.  I was originally going to do Dali's The Persistence of Memory but I remembered a painting that I fell in love with in Art History, I loved how graphic it was.

Source

This is Rene Magritte's Son of Man.

And here is mine.  My base colour is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Blue Away.  I used Sinful Colours Snow Me White and Color Club Silver Lake and a Q-Tip for the clouds.  The Son of Man itself is Nubar Midnight Matte for the suit and bowler hat, OPI My Vampire is Buff for his face, Snow Me White for his shirt, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Rapid Red for his tie, and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lickety Split Lime for the apple.  The shadows are Midnight Matte added to the original colour, and the highlight is Snow Me White added to the original colour.

Matte

I ended up liking this so much I did clouds on my other hand and wearing it all day yesterday and today.

That is all for today, but I will be back tomorrow with the next prompt of Oils.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 21: Snow Day

Hello polish lovers!

So the prompt from yesterday was Snow Day and I was immediately transported to my childhood where my mother would have a stock of 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles in the cabinet for just the occasion.  When the weather was really bad(and in Ontario in winter the weather is frequently bad) if the schools were closed we used to spend the day doing puzzles.

I started with 2 coats of Color Club Silver Lake, a light toned grey with slight brown undertone, opaque and non streaky in 2 coats.

When the base was dry I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Rapid Red and MASH plate 43 and then stamped over my accent nail with BM319 and Konad Special Black Stamping Polish.

Unfortunately I did not wait quite long enough before top coating so a few fingers have some slight drag marks.

I will be back in a few with today's prompt of Surrealism.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 19: Game Night

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my Game Night nails for you.  So in my house game night is either Scrabble or Trivial Pursuit.  Since we played both of those games on Family Day, they were particularly fresh in my mind.

I chose Trivial Pursuit nails for this prompt.

I chose China Glaze First Mate for my main colour, since it is similar to the background of the game board, and a 1 coater, and I am still in love with it.  My ring finger is 3 coats of China Glaze Oxygen a cream jelly formula.

Once this was dry I added striping tape to create my pie piece shapes and used OPI Pink Friday, Barry M Turquoise, OPI Need Sunglasses?, Orly Prince Charming, Barielle Shades Central Park and Color Club Wham! Pow! to fill in the different categories of questions.  I went with the original colours as apposed to the new ones, the have replaced brown with purple now.

That is all for today but I will be back tomorrow with my Pop Culture nails.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 18: Sci-Fi

Hello polish lovers!

Time for my Sci-Fi nails.  For this prompt I decided to go way back and chose my first fan-dom.  I always loved the Star Wars movies...when I was little it was mostly because of the Ewoks...this was only increased when they came out with the 2 Ewok movies, Battle for Endor and Caravan of Courage and finally with the Ewok cartoon.  So I decided to do Wicket, my favourite Ewok, and the trees of Endor.

On my accent nail I began with 2 coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, and on my other nails its 2 coats of China Glaze The Grass is Lime Greener.  For Wicket I used Color Club Wham! Pow!, Butter London Tea & Toast, Orly Prince Charming and black and white stipers.

The trees are A England Dragon and BM407.

Of course I had to matte it.

Anyway that is all for today but I will be back tomorrow with my Game Night nails.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 17: Animation

Hello polish lovers!

Sorry I didn't post yesterday but it was Family Day here in Canada(Ontario to be exact) and we all spent the day together.

So yesterday's prompt was Animation and I took the opportunity to try out some nails that I have been wanting to do since last summer....Adventure Time nails!

They definitely did not turn out the way I wanted them to but I don't think they were that bad for a first attempt.  They all started of a base of OPI Alpine SNow.

I think LSP turned out the best but I will list the polishes that I used here for you:
LSP-OPI A Grape Fit!, and Need Sunglasses with a black striper.
Finn-OPI My Vampire is Buff and a black striper.
Jake-OPI The "IT" Color and black and white stripers.
Princess Bubblegum-Color Club Flamingo, China Glaze In a Lily Bit and the Grass is Lime Greener, OPI Need Sunglasses and a black striper.

That is all for now but I will be right back with my Sci-Fi nails.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 12: Camouflage

Hello polish lovers!

I am back with my Camouflage nails for today's prompt.  Since I am a Canadian girl and it is winter, I decided to to snow camo.

I started with 2 coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls,  a perfect dirty white.

Once this was dry I got out my medium and small dotting tools and got to work.  The lightest gray is Barielle Shades U-Concrete me mixed with My Boyfriend Scales Walls to make a lighter shade, the next gray is Color Club Shabby Drab and the black is OPI Black Onyx(the black is done using the smaller dotting tool.

I really enjoyed these and will definitely have to do them again.  Of course I had to try matting them and I love that too.

That is all for today, but I will be back tomorrow with my Hearts mani.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 9: Inner Geek...Doctor Who!

Hello polish lovers!

I took today's prompt to mean what makes you geek out or what do you fangirl about, and for me, that's Doctor Who.  I love Doctor Who, although I have to say I took a break when Tennant regenerated into Smith, but Smith won me over, and has since become my favourite Doctor, although Tennant is still the prettiest.  Although I have seen Doctor Who enemy nails in the past, I only looked at Google images of photos of the actual villains for these nails and any similarity is not intentional.

So for today's prompt I decided to go with some of my favourite Doctor Who villains... because we wouldn't need a Doctor if there were no villains around.  All nails have a base of 1 coat of OPI Black Onyx.

On my pinkie nail I have done an Adipose...probably the cutest problem the Doctor has ever had to face(and it reminds me of the Tribels from the Star Trek universe).  Who's a cute little fat alien(literally)?  An Adipose is.  I used OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and a black striper to create.

On my ring nail I have a Dalek, the Doctor's worst enemy...the destroyer of Gallifrey.  I used Nubar Sunset Matte, Essie Go
od as Gold and a black striper to create.

My middle nail is a Cyberman, a machine with a human brain...but lacking humanity.  I used Essie No Place Like Chrome and a black striper to create.

And on my index nail I have The Silence...originally confessors created by the Papal Mainframe, a splinter cell tries to kill the doctor on more than one occasion, no one remembers them once they are no longer in site, but definitely one of the creepiest enemies....along with the Weeping Angels.  I used Barry M Lychee, a black striper, and Color Club Silver Lake with a detail brush to create.

I, of course, had to Matte this(because I have a problem).  I wonder how many other participants chose Doctor Who for their Inner Geek nails.

That is all for now, but I will be back tomorrow with my Night Sky nails.

Until then, polish happy!

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 8: Still Life

Hello polish lovers!

I told you I would be back!  So lets get started...I began with 2 coats of China Glaze Lemon Fizz, a soft butter-cream yellow(I have a few by different brands that look to be similar colours if anyone would like a comparison).

Once this was dry I got out my trusting dotting tools and a detail brush and got started.

The vase is Color Club Pucci-licious, the stripe is Color Club Silver Lake, the leaves are Orly Mint Mojito(light green) and OPI Jade is the New Black(dark green) and the roses are Barielle Shades Euphoric(lighter raspberry) and OPI Visions of Love.

I was kind of going for a Van Gogh look for the vase of flowers but its hard to make nail polish look like brushstroke-y oil paint.  I really love how the full roses look, better than the buds in the vase.  The last time I did roses I used a small dotting tool and dabbed in C's while this time I put a dot of the dark colour in the center of the wet polish and used my thinnest dotting tool to swirl the two colours around.

The roses are my favourite freehand that I have done recently, and I cannot wait to show you my mani for Camoflage...but that is later in the week.

I will be back tomorrow with my Inner Geek nails...I will give you a hint...EXTERMINATE!!!

Until then, polish happy!

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 3: Warm vs. Cool

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my day 3 challenge mani, Warm vs. Cool.  I decided to go mostly with cool tones, which is more than half of my collection.  I did a base of 2 coats of Color Club's Baldwin Blues except for my warm, which is 2 coats of OPI's My Favourite Ornament(Oh My Glob! the gorgeous glitter!).

Once this was dry I coated with Nubar's Diamont Seal and Shine, Fast Drying Top Coat, which I have not heard any reviews on but is very fast drying...I will need to try it with stamping, I am a little hesitant because it is a thin formula so I don't know if it will drag stamping or not.  I will report back after I have attempted.  Perhaps I will do a comparison of a number of top coats, to check drying time and stamp dragging.  Anyway, I am getting off topic.

In keeping with my cool tones I decided to stamp with Color Club's Silver Lake, a metallic silver that works great for stamping, and the feather image from the Nailz Craze NC01 plate available here to see her Etsy store.

I completely fell in love with this design and have recreated this mani using SOPI Caffeine Fix and Essie's As Good as Gold for a warmer look.

That is all for today, but I will be back tomorrow with day 4, Monochromatic.

Until then, polish happy!

Nail Art A-Go-Go Challenge, Day 1: Achromatic

Hello polish lovers!

Today, as promised, I have my first mani for the Nail Art A-Go-Go Challenge I am participating in.  Today's prompt is Achromatic, which means grey-scale or lacking colour.  I started out with 1 coat of OPI's Black Onyx (yes I finally broke down and got a good black, this is really opaque and none streaky).

I was really pleased with my first use of this as a base for this art.  Once Black Onyx was dry I decided to use part of a plastic bag and some different grey's to create a variation of the Saran Wrap technique.

The colours I used were all Color Clubs, Lady Holiday, a light grey is part of the Harlem Lights collection, Shabby Drab, a mid-toned grey with a slight purple undertone, and Silver Lake, the bright silver(also an awesome stamping polish).

I love the dimension the silver gives these nails and ended up liking them so much I did my other hand and wore them for a few days.  When I do these again I think I will add some splotches of the black on top of the grey to give it even more dimension.

That is all for today, I will be back tomorrow with Day 2, Jewel Tones.

Until then, polish happy!

Still Obsessed with MoYou London Plates

Hello polish lovers!

So I have still not decided on a set schedule for this blog, which is why I have not posted in a while(that's a lie, I have been feeling really lazy lately and although I have been doing my nails and taking photo's, I just haven't wanted to edit).  Starting tomorrow, though, I have decided to do the Nail Art A Go-Go Challenge for February.  It is a 28 day challenge so I will have a new mani everyday for the month of February.  I have completed the first week of prompts and will continue to try to work ahead.  I love the idea of this challenge because it is a lot of Art related prompts, and as a former Art major, I find this irresistible.

Anyway, on to today's mani.

For my base I started with Models Own Bubblegum(still obsessed with a neon that stamps beautifully).

Bubblegum is completely opaque in 2 coats and does not require a white base.  It is much more neon in person, don't know why it is so toned down in my photos except for the inability of my camera to accurately capture most neons.

Over this I decided to stamp with another of the MoYou London Pro plates, 15. which is Pop Art-y, with Warhol and Lichtenstein, which I love.

I, again, used Color Club's Abyss for stamping.  Putting the green polish over the pink, caused the colour to look more blue, but I am okay with that.  I decided on the Warhol Mickey Mouse image for my accent finger.

Something else that I have been working on is going through all my polishes to see which ones are good for stamping, over both white and black.  I have completed the polishes in my Melmer and will begin on my rack polishes soon.  Once I am finished I will list on my blog all of the polishes that stamp over light and dark polishes.

I will be back tomorrow with the first prompt for the Nail Art A-Go-Go Challenge, achromatic nails.

Until then, polish happy!

Nail of the Day: Alpine Snow with MoYou London Stamping

Hello polish lovers!

Today I am back with my nail of the day...although it is one I wore a few days ago but I am trying to get my photo's built back up so I have changed my nails 3 times since I got back from vacation.

Having just come back from the Caribbean, I was feeling bright and floral, so that is what I did.  I started with 2 coats of OPI's Alpine Snow, one of my favourite whites...I need to get a backup bottle badly, fortunately I think it is part of the permanent collection.  I especially love when I use it for a stamping base and have a tan, it looks very good...more of a tan than I have now, obviously.

Once this was coated in SV and dried I chose the colours I wanted to stamp with.  I used Models Own Bubblegum, a neon pink that I discovered, through The Crumpet, stamps beautifully...I definitely need to get more of their neons.  I used my MoYou London Pro Collection 10 and the cherry blossom design for all fingers except my ring finger, which I stamped in Color Club Abyss and a different floral design from the same plate.

I love the contrast between the 2 colours, while the floral designs and the white base help to keep the design cohesive.  I actually loved the pink and green together so much, I used them for the next nails that I did as well(post coming soon).

While at my local Walmart today I found some of the new Sally Hansen Satin Glam polishes...mine had 4 colours, and picked up Silk Onyx, so look forward to a first impressions and review of the newest Sally Hansen line, coming soon.

Until then, polish happy!

Vacation Haul...As Promised

Hello polish lovers!

Here is my vacation polish haul, as promised.  It is not near as large as I was expecting it to be but the polishes at TJMax and Marshalls in Ft. Lauderdale were incredibly picked over and I didn't find anything that I wanted, except a Sparitual mini 10 pack at Marshalls, unfortunately, the line up was so long I did not feel the wait justified the purchase.

I did go into Bed, Bath & Beyond and managed to find 2 polishes.  The first was Sinful Colors, Nail Junkie, a lovely teal jelly filled with small holographic hex glitters, that is opaque in 3 coats.

The second polish I picked up at Bed, Bath & Beyond was Color Club's Abyss, a a bright green-blue that works very well with Nail Junkie for an accent.  Abyss is very opaque, requiring only 1 coat, and I am happy to announce works great as a stamping polish (I currently have it on my accent finger).

The other 4 polishes that I picked up were all purchased in St. Thomas while on my cruise and they are from Del Sol, which is a shop that deals with items that change colour in the sun, with the polish being no exception.  Unfortunately the Canadian winter sun that shone today was not strong enough to show the colour shift so I can only show you the non-changed colours and tell you what they change to.  I think we will have to wait till summer for a full transformation.

Confetti, a violet base with holographic glitters, turns dark blue in bright sun.

VIP, silver/gold champagne base with holographic glitter, turns bright pink/red, depending on how many coats you use.  I had this on for half of the cruise and could not stop looking at how shiny my nails looked.  When I wear this again I may use a nude base colour because with 3 coats you still have visible nail line.

Heartbreaker, red jelly base with red and silver small glitter, turns purple in the sun.

Electrick!, the only non glitter that I picked up, is a shimmery ice blue that changes to an intense lime green in the sun. I don't know how opaque this is but I will definitely be wearing it on my toes a lot this summer.

That is the end of my haul, I know it is kind of small but I didn't want to buy something just because it was there, I did not want something that I already had by another brand, I wanted colours that added to my collection.

I did receive the 22 mini's from the Formula X for Sephora from my brother this Christmas, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I also received 3 SOPI's from my sister, Thyme for a Mani, a brown-y taupe creme that reminds me of a lighter version of You Don't Know Jacques(I saw it at Winners one day and am kicking myself that I did not pick it up).  I Think I Cayenne, a burnt orange shimmer, and BYOBOY, which is a dusty rose creme that I will definitely be using for retro roses this spring.

Anyway, that is all for this post.  I will be back soon.  I need to get back into a regular posting schedule.

Until next time, polish happy!

Christmas Challenge and Moyou London First Impressions

Hello polish lovers!

Ok so I am a bad blogger.  I said I would post on Tuesday and I didn't.  Sorry, we ended up doing a bunch of Christmas baking and had a big family dinner and then made marzipan so my day really filled up.  So to make up for my broken promise today is going to be a longer post.

I will start with my Christmas Challenge post for Day 3 which is Holiday Colours(I will say I am totally lost for the next few prompts).  I started with 1 coat of China Glaze White on White.

I think this polish has thickened nicely as I use it and is now totally opaque in 1 coat where before it took 2.

Once this was dry I got out my smallest detail brush and OPI I'm Not Really a Waitress and China Glaze Running in Circles and created a candy cane stripe.

I used a white striper to clean up the lines and top coated in SV.  INRAW is an awesome holiday red!

And now on the the Moyou London plates.

I picked up a number of plates recently...using The Nailasaurus's promo code...yay for savings!  I purchased a variety of plates from a number of different sets...but most are from the Pro line because I found I was really into the patterns.

 This is Pro 07, I fell in love with the owl and the handwriting, to say nothing of the awesome hounds-tooth.  The handwriting was the first image I used and that mani will be at the end of this post.

 This is Pro 10, I love the amazing floral branches in the right hand corner, sorry the pic is fuzzy, didn't notice until I was editing.

 Pro 15, as a former Art major I could not resist the Warhol and Liechtenstein images.  I love Pop Art.

 Pro 06...I am unable to resist a good dandelion fluff...need I say more?

 Sailor 6, I love the repetition of waves and this has some great ones.

 Sailor 7, more great waves, you will see the Bridget Riley-esque one in an upcoming post.  Also fish!

 Suki 1, more owls! I couldn't not get one of the artistic plates...even though I think it will be harder to use.  I can see polish getting everywhere!  The patterns are clear and intricate and the peacock is gorgeous!

And last but not least Kitty 11..because I became addicted to having birds on my nails from the Messy Mansion plate and this is the next step.  I am totally going to do a cat gets bird mani:)

So, the quality...is the best of any of the plates I have tried...and this includes Konad.  All lines are clean and clearly deeply etched...but not so deep as to cause pressure smudging, you know, the smudging you get when there is too much polish on the plate and it squishes onto the clean areas.  I got none of that on any of the images I have tried so far.  I also found the variety of plates fantastic...they definitely have something for everyone...whether you are a Princess or Biker or anything in between.

I also got the white squishy stamper and scraper and I am completely in love!  The stamp is so soft that I don't have to wait as long before stamping because there is not as much pressure transfer.  Also because this is a rectangular stamper it is easier to line up my images and make them straight and centered on the nail.

Overall I am very impressed with MoYou London plates and would definitely get more.  You can get your plates here.

And here is what I did with my first attempt:

 The base is Color Club Evolution and I used Seche Hypnotic to stamp, it looked a lot like ink.  Any voids in the stamping was my bad for not putting enough polish on the plate and no fault of the plate itself.

Ok, sorry for the image overload but I am in love and I want to spread it around.

Until next time, polish happy!

Christmas Challenge Day 2: Winter Nature

Hello polish lovers!

Just a quick post tonight with my Winter Nature mani for the Christmas Challenge I am doing.  Today's post is not a complete fail but I should have used a darker mix for my sky before adding the stamping to make it stand out more.  Also excuse the fact I forgot to take photos before the stamping so you could see what the sponging looked like on its own.

I started with 2 coats of China Glaze White on White and then used various unnamed Color Club greys and a bit of makeup sponge in tweezers to create the sky, dark with snow.

I let that dry and then used Konad white polish and BMH02 to stamp on the stylized tree design.  I let that dry and used my black striper to create bare trees in the foreground and coated with SV.

Told you it would be quick, I will be back on Tuesday with a non-challenge post.

Until then, polish happy!

33 DC Day 32: Shapes

Hello polish lovers!

I am managing to post tonight even though I am ridiculously tired and just want to curl up in my hot water bottle preheated bed and read a few pages of Going Postal(Terry Pratchett for the win!) before getting at least a solid 8 hours before work tomorrow.

But enough whining, I post for the same reason we all do...a love of nail polish!

Today's prompt in the 33 DC was shapes, which is very open to interpretation, so I decided to go with something freehand.  My base for this mani is yet another of the unnamed Color Club's that I have been using so often.  This colour is possibly Abyss, but it is one of those neon turquoise colours that does not photograph true to colour.

Once that had dried I got out my Nubar black striper and placed 3 triangles on each nail.  I waited for that to dry and then used another unnamed Color Club in a similar but lighter blue and a large dotting tool to add circles, some of them overlapping the triangles, which was an interesting effect.

So Friday is the final day of the 33 DC and I cannot believe I got all the prompts done...almost on time!

Until then, polish happy!