First Attempt at Nail Foils

A couple months ago, I made a Dollar Nail Art haul. One of the things I was most excited about were the nail foils, but they were also the only thing I was really nervous about. I thought they might not work or I would struggle too much and they would just look awful. So they've sat in a drawer taunting me since my order arrived. I chose six patterns and they all look gorgeous on the transfer paper, but I doubted I could make them look good on my nails. 

Yesterday, I finally decided to just go for it. After all, the great thing about nail art is you can always take it off and start over. And who knows, maybe I just happen to have a great talent for applying nail foils. Turns out, I don't. But I want to show you my first attempt anyway.

Not too bad overall. I had a little trouble getting it all the way to my cuticles and there are a few spots where the pattern didn't transfer completely, but there's definitely potential with these. I'll have to try again and let you guys know how it goes. This pattern is called Fifth Avenue and it's over one coat of Wet n Wild Black Creme.

For anyone who hasn't heard of Dollar Nail Art before, it's an e-tailer that has tons of nail art supplies and each item is (you guessed it) a dollar. For some of their products, the amount you get for a buck is pretty tiny but some are a great deal. The nail foils are one of the better deals. For a dollar, you get a roll that will do several manicures at least, even with a few practice attempts. Their minimum order is $25 though, so it might be a good idea to do a group buy with a few friends.

If anyone has any tips on how to make the nail foils work, I'd love to hear them.

St Patrick's Day: NOTD 3

I wanted to do a leprechaun for St Patrick's Day. This one definitely didn't turn out as well as I had pictured it in my mind. I like how his hat looks, and the beard seems okay, but it kinda goes downhill from there. Anyway, here it is:

I did the hat with these dots from Dollar Nail Art. I used Elf Innocent for his skin, a mix of SH Xtreme Wear in Sun Kissed and So Sexy Red for the beard, clothes are Xtreme Wear Emerald City, shoes are Xtreme Wear Black Out, and China Glaze Midnight Kiss for his belt. The background is Elf Mint Cream.

St Patrick's Day: NOTD 2

My second NOTD for St Patrick's Day is the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. So I could get more designs done, I switched to using false nails for this series, but my original plan for this one was to have the rainbow would continue from the thumb over to the ring finger. The design below with the pot of gold would then be on my pinkie nail.

I used bullion beads from Dollar Nail Art for the gold. The pot is Color Club Revvvolution and the background is OPI What's With the Cattitude?. For the rainbow I used (in order red to violet) SH Xtreme Wear in Cherry Red, Sun Kissed, Mellow Yellow, Green with Envy, and Blue Me Away, and Sally Girl in Your Majesty.

St Patrick's Day: NOTD 1

Here's the first in my series of St Patrick's Day nail art. I'm not sure how many I'll end up doing. It all depends on how many ideas I can come up with.

The green is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Emerald City and the gold is China Glaze Midnight Kiss. The heart rhinestones are from Born Pretty. The tiny balls I found at Dollarama, but the colour bleeds out of them. Born Pretty has similar balls, which I plan on reviewing soon.

Heart Rhinestones (Click image to go to Born Pretty Store)

NOTD: Patchwork using SH HD Laser

I haven't been posting very often. I was determined to do better in the new year, but I underestimated how little time I would have to blog with the new puppy. I spend all day chasing after Rosie and keeping her out of trouble. Then, I go to work and by the time I get home, the last thing I have time or energy for is sitting at the computer. But one look at her cute little face and it's all worth it. And once she grows up a bit, I'll have more time to focus on posting here. 

Rosie loves playing in (and eating) the snow.

Rosie and our older boxer, Sarge

Anyway, back to the nails. I was wearing SH HD in Laser the other day and I wanted to change my nails but was too lazy to remove it and start over. So I figured this was the perfect time to finally do a patchwork design. I used SH Xtreme Wear in Ocean View and NYC in Midtown to pick up the blue and purple/fuchsia duochrome of Laser. This was super easy to do with painter's tape, although you can see a couple spots where the polish leaked under the tape. I think it's straightforward enough that I don't have step-by-step pics, but if anyone wants to see a tutorial for this look, let me know in the comments.

My First Water Marble

I've been meaning to try water marbling for ages but never got around to it until now. I think a lot of the reason I waited was just because it seems too intimidating. But it's actually pretty easy. Well, the basics are easy, but I know it's gonna be a lot harder to do some of the designs I've seen. 

I used SH Xtreme Wear in Twisted Pink and Plum Power for the marble, over a base of Elf Passion Pink. I just wanted to try out the technique this time, rather than an actual design, so I ended up with a very random marble effect.

I think next time I will choose colours that contrast more so the marble effect is not so subtle. You know, I'm not a big fan of subtlety.

Have any of you tried water marbling yet? I know I'm probably the last person not to, so I'd love to see what you guys have done. Any tips or tricks to share?

LA Girl Rockstar Double Platinum swatch

Here's Double Platinum from the LA Girl Rockstar collection. Taupe with holographic glitter. This one really comes to life in bright light but even inside, it's a gorgeous, slightly subdued polish. It starts off sheer but is buildable. I think this was three coats, maybe four.

China Glaze Towel Boy Toy

This polish was on my lemming list for ages. I'm not really sure why I waited so long to buy it, but I just got this a few weeks ago in my Head2Toe Beauty order. From the Summer 2010 Poolside collection, this is China Glaze Towel Boy Toy. I used four coats for this, but you could probably cut back on that by starting with a white base. 

I am absolutely in love with this colour. It's a bright, shimmery blue. Since it's a neon, this one dried super fast to a matte finish.

I also tried this one with a top coat for a shiny finish. And it brings this colour completely over the top! Check it out after the jump.

Christmas NOTD 8: Snowflakes & Snowmen

I had a few requests to do either snowmen or snowflakes. So I have two versions to share--stamping and freehand.

First up, SH Pacific Blue as a base with SH Celeb City stamped on using m37 for the snowmen and BM14 for snowflakes. Then I sponged on SH Disco Ball. 

I also did freehand on my sister's nails. This is over China Glaze For Audrey. After painting on the designs with white polish, I used loose iridescent glitter. Clearly, I need to practice freehand nail art.

Christmas NOTD 7: Christmas Trees

 I decided to do Christmas tree nails, but rather than stamp or freehand the trees, today's nails are just inspired by Christmas trees. I used China Glaze Jolly Holly as the base and stamped on Color Club Worth the Risque using image plate BM11 for tinsel.

 

 And since Wendy suggested I do a glow-in-the-dark Christmas mani, I used Sally Hansen Glow in the Dark for the lights. I couldn't get a picture that showed the dots glowing but how cool is this bottle shot?

Last, I used clear polish to add rhinestone ornaments. It turned the silver holo a bit yellow, but I'm not sure if that's better or worse.

I completely forgot to take a photo of Jolly Holly alone until I was done my left hand but luckily I got a picture of my right hand (at a bad angle, sorry). I don't wear green nail polish very often but this colour is gorgeous. Dark green full of green shimmer with just a bit of golden shimmer as well. It's a perfect Christmas green.

Christmas NOTD 5: Candy Canes

Today I have candy cane nails. This is super easy. Just Wet n Wild French White Creme and loose red glitter. It looks kinda orange-red in this photo, but it's actually a true red. I ended up with glitter EVERY WHERE. But a co-worker complimented my nails and said they were very festive, so I guess it was worth it. I think if I were to do candy canes again, I would probably just use a red glitter polish for the stripes. And maybe add in some thin green stripes as well.

Christmas NOTD 4: China Glaze GR8

I've been trying to use Christmas colours for my nails this month, but I just bought a bunch of holographic polishes that I want to try out. So, today's nails are a compromise of the two. Here's China Glaze GR8 from the OMG collection. Gold is a Christmas colour, right? The holo effect in these pictures is pretty subtle, but in bright light, this polish really comes to life.

Christmas NOTD 3: Gingerbread Men

This design turned into a fail. It was supposed to be gingerbread men, but they look more like amorphic alien blobs. That sometimes happens when I try to freehand nail art. I might try these again; I haven't decided. Anyway, I wanted to share this anyway because I like the idea of gingerbread men nails, even if it didn't turn out so well.

I used Ardene Barely There as a base, Rimmel Hot Cocoa for the gingerbread men, Wet n Wild Black Creme for the buttons, and SH Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away for the eyes. I forgot mouths, which is another reason they look so wrong. :/

Christmas NOTD 2: China Glaze Mistletoe Kisses

I know most of you have seen this colour a million times in the past few weeks, but it really is gorgeous so I had to show it here. As soon as I saw the China Glaze holiday collection, there were two colours that I knew I must have. The first was Mistletoe Kisses. It's silvery-green glitter in green base. I'm not usually a big green fan, but this is a perfect polish for Christmas. This is three coats (though I probably could have got away with two).

Photos after the jump.

Christmas NOTD 1: Orly Moonlit Madness

I thought I'd start my month of Christmas themed manis with a simple one. This is Orly Moonlit Madness, a classic dark red full of red shimmer. These pics don't quite show how deep and rich this colour really is, but the flash photo is closest.

Swatches after the jump.

White Ruby Nail Prisms (Pic Spam)

Here's White Ruby. This is one of the sheerer Nails Prisms so i layered it over black to really show off the rainbow effect. At some angles it's silvery white; sometimes it has a pink foil effect. I could just sit and watch my nails as I move my hands to see the different colours. I took dozens of photos to try and capture every colour shift, so here's a bunch of them.

 More photos after the jump.

East Village Comparison

I've got another colour today that isn't very "fall" but I just bought it so I wanted to show you. Pharma Plus has NYC polishes BOGO this week so I chose a couple. The first is East Village. This is a shimmery blue-green. It went on smoothly, but after 3-4 coats was still a bit sheer.

I think I have a dupe for this. Comparison after the jump.

Yellow It's Me...Matte

I'm having a bit of a blah day. It's my only day off work this week so I was planning on getting a lot done and I had some shopping to do. My bike is broken so I would have walked but I woke up to rain. I don't feel like missioning on the bus, so today has turned into a lounge around in pyjamas and catch up on some tv watching day.

I needed a nice bright colour to cancel all that out. So here is Nicole by OPI in Yellow It's Me - Matte. I'm not really a yellow person. I always think I'll like them but I never wear them. I like this one because it's not just yellow. It has a bit of a murky gold and almost green tone on my nails. The colour (but obviously not the finish) seems like it might be similar to Fiercely Fiona. I've only seen photos of that one so I can't be sure. Does anyone have both to compare them?

Swatches are after the jump.

Space Nails

I'm sorry I haven't been blogging this week. It's been a tough week at work and I've had an awful cold so when I get home, I've just been wrapping myself in blankets and watching tv. I'm starting to feel a bit better now though so I'll get back on track with the blog. And even when I'm sick, I paint my nails each day so I do have some photos to share from the past few days.

My sister suggested I do space nails and I wasn't really sure what she meant. But once she explained it, I couldn't do it fast enough. Basically, you start with a black base and sponge on duochrome and holographic polishes to recreate the look of outer space. The effect was pretty hard to photograph so here's some pic spam that doesn't quite capture how amazing it looks. I wish you could see what this looks like in real life. I got a lot of compliments for this look. So, I guess I should thank my sister for the idea.

I used Wet n Wild Black Creme as a base. Then I used a foam paint brush to sponge on SH HD Laser, Orly Space Cadet, and SH Urban Chic. I topped that with a thin coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust and some loose holographic hex glitter to simulate stars. 

 I should really start cleaning up my nails BEFORE I take photos. Some of these are pretty blurry, to show the holo glitter in all its glory. The last one shows Space Cadet the best. Have I ever mentioned how much I love that colour? I know every other blogger has. And it is worth all the hype. If you don't have it yet, try to find a bottle. I'm tempted to buy a back-up because it is so amazing.

SH Rockstar Pink

Here is SH Xtreme Wear in Rockstar Pink. This has pink/purple, blue, and red regular glitter and silver microglitter.This is three coats with nothing underneath. I normally use black as a base, so this is a little different for me. Click on the images to enlarge so you can see this glitter in all its glory.

Even this wasn't quite enough for me so I added two thin coats of SH New Lengths Ceramics in Urban Chic, a holographic microglitter. The difference isn't too noticeable here, but it did add a little extra oomph.

And because I just couldn't leave it alone, I added a coat of Claire's matte top coat. I usually love matte glitters and shimmers, but I actually prefer this one glossy, so I used Seche Vite to add back the shine.

What's your favourite glitter bomb polish? Do you prefer to use a base colour or just the glitter alone? I'd love to hear from you.