31 Day Challenge: Day 10

Hi guys! Today's mani is my favorite from the challenge so far!
The theme is Gradient Nails.

I'm in love!! I just love gradients, they're really pretty and eye-catching. I always get compliments when I wear gradients.

Here are the polishes I used:

I've been told recently that people like when I include bottle pictures, so I will try to do it more often!

This mani started with 2 coats of Joe Fresh - Iris.
Most of the time, Joe Fresh polishes don't jump out at me, but recently I actually picked up three of the newer ones that were just lovely! I'll show you the other two sometime soon, I'm sure.
Most pictures of this color came out inaccurate, but this next photo shows the true color of the polish:

Excuse the lobster hands and blurry photo! Sometimes that is the only way you can get the right color to show up!
It is a blue-toned dusty purple, and I have nothing else like it!

For the gradient, I began sponging on a thin coat of Essence - Can't Cheat on Me. I haven't shown you a swatch of that one yet, so I'll show it now!

Can't Cheat On Me is a sheer but buildable subtle holographic polish from Essence. These babies only cost 99 cents at Ulta.

This swatch is four coats. Because it is so sheer, I knew it would be awesome for gradients!

In this close up, you can see the subtle holo going on. It is pretty but not very obvious.

On top of the Essence gradient, I added a coat of OPI - Yule Love This Silver to give it some more holo sparkle! The particles in the OPI are larger and brighter so they give it a nice glittery effect.

Look how pretty the bottle looks in this photo! Hehe.

I totally love this mani, and I can't wait to try another gradient with Can't Cheat On Me!
It is a bit wintery though... Can't you picture it with some snowflakes stamped on? I'll have to keep that in mind for the Christmas season!

Don't forget, my GOSH Holographic giveaway ends on Monday night! Be sure to enter and tell all your friends! :)

More about → 31 Day Challenge: Day 10

i am loopy. froot loopy!

Good morning!

I'm sure a lot of you have seen posts on this already, but here is mine.
My lovely friend Leslie had a nail art competition and she got 48 entries!!
I am in no way expecting to win, there are so many lovely entries, but I really do like mine! Haha.

I'm entry #6. Froot Loops!

I think my photos are adorable too :P

Interested in learning how I did this manicure? I went about it in a sort of strange way.

This is what I did first. I did the nails in random half-and-half patterns, and I sponged a lighter color on top of each one to give it that textured, Froot Loop look.
Purple:
China Glaze - Spontaneous
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Lacey Lilac
Pink:
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Presto Pink
Wet N Wild Wild Shine - Tickled Pink
Yellow:
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Mellow Yellow
Joe Fresh - Butter
Green:
China Glaze - Entourage
China Glaze - Re-Fresh Mint
Orange:
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Sun Kissed
China Glaze - Peachy Keen

Then I added hole reinforcements to each side, and painted over the while thing with white.
I cleaned up any messy parts, added Seche Vite, and it was done!

A bit of a silly manicure, but I like it all the same.

Check out all the entries, and vote for me if you like mine the best :)

More about → i am loopy. froot loopy!

joe fresh swatches!

Late night post!
I had a swatch marathon this afternoon (25 polishes) so I decided I might as well get started on showing you them!
So tonight I have for you 6 Joe Fresh swatches.

If you are not familiar with Joe Fresh then you probably aren't Canadian. Haha.
This brand is sold only in Canada at Loblaw's/Dominion supermarkets.
They also have clothes, makeup, body and bath products, etc.

Their polishes are actually really good quality.
They retail for $4 or 3/$10.
The downside with Joe polishes is that they are only 6mL, and the large cap can be a bit tricky sometimes.

I currently have six colors from Joe and I totally love 3 of them. The other three aren't really my thing, but 2 of them I got on sale for $1 so it's not a big deal, and the other one I bought before I realized that I don't like yellow. Hah.
I'll show you the non-faves first.

This is Beet. 2 coats. A deeper red than anything I own so despite not really liking it, I am happy to have it in my collection, just in case I need a dark red. (Does anyone else think this way?)

This is Butter. 3 coats, as usual this is a streaky yellow. More pale than other yellows I own. I showed a yellow comparison including Butter in this post.
Yellow is not my thing but this polish is okay. (However... in my swatch marathon today I fell in love with a yellow. Yes, love. I think I will post that part of my swatches next.)

This is Steel. Sort of a cross between a foil and a shimmer. 1 coat!

This one is very pretty but as you might know I just don't enjoy wearing really dark colors lately.

Now for the 3 faves!

This is Powder Blue. 3 coats. This is a paler, more purple-toned blue than other blues I own. I just love pastels!

Coral. This is the most recent addition to my Joe Fresh arsenal, I bought it when I knew I had an appointment coming up with a girl who wanted a coral colored polish with shatter for her grad. It ended up being the perfect shade!
This is 3 coats. I really like it! It is a very pink coral, which takes it far enough away from orange that I can enjoy it. Heh.

And my fave, Faded Violet. This 2 coats. Probably would need 3 normally but I use this a lot so it has thickened some.
It is the perfect pastel purple. Love it. Probably will need a second bottle eventually.

So that's it for Joe polishes!
I had another, Twilight, but I have since swapped that with Caroline from Shadow's Nail Art because I know she will love it more than I did :)

After my swatch marathon today I went through my list of polish to count how many I have left to swatch for my swatch list - 118. I have done so many yet I still have so many left.
And that number doesn't include all my old no-name polishes but I don't plan on swatching those, really, because they are old and not something you can buy anymore so it doesn't matter. I might take some photos of them though, just for fun, to show you what I have in my "oldies" drawer.

I'm going to bed now. Goodnight! See you in the morning with more swatches!

More about → joe fresh swatches!

joe fresh - twilight - swatch and review

Good morning followers!
I see that I have gained quite a few of you since yesterday. Thanks :)

Today I have a swatch that I did last night that I am not proud of. Haha.
I really wanted to show this to you but I didn't want to take my franken off yet, so I took it off my right hand only. And apparerntly my right hand has been suffering for some reason because my skin is so dry.

Anyway. This polish has flakies. Yep. Flakies.
99% of the polish-loving population love flakies.
I can't really say that I love them... but I bought this polish anyway.
Same thing with Hidden Treasure, I needed to have it because it was flakies, but then I realized I'm not that into it. But I still like HAVING it. Weird, I know. (But I'm sure you know what I mean.)

On to the swatches. My bottle picture is more impressive than the actual swatches. Hah!

Doesn't this excite you flakie-lovers??

Once it was on the nail the flakies just didn't want to be photographed.
So I'll have to explain them to you.
Most of the time they flash orangey-browny-green, and then you turn your hand and they go full-on emerald.

Pretty green! I should have worn topcoat but didn't notice until I saw the pictures. Haha.
This is three coats of Twilight.

It is so full of flakies!
My friend Kayla Shevonne showed this on a nail wheel by itself, mattified, and over black, check that out here.

Anyway, this is a Canadian brand, so any of you flakie-lovin' ladies not in Canada might weep a little.

But! Fear not!
One of you lucky ladies will be winning a bottle of this beauty in my upcoming giveaway!
Does that excite you? I thought so.

My giveaway is almost ready to be posted. I'm going to try and get the last thing I need tonight, so it should be up tomorrow or the next day.

I'm off to read some magazines to pass the time at work. I'm working 4/5 days this week. Bleh.
However, I am excited to go home, because my Starry Temptress package came yesterday, and I'm going to swatch them!
(I'm wearing Space Case on my right hand right now, and it is so cute. You cannot get a more perfect Barbie polish than this one! Haha.)

Oh! And!
I only got one suggestion yesterday on what to call my franken, but it was a good one!
Kimaloo said that it reminded her of Funfetti cupcakes, and she thinks I should call it "Rebecca Likes Cupcakes."
I think this is hilarious and fitting, because Rebecca DOES like cupcakes as you may remember from my few baking posts.
So that is probably going to be my franken's name. Aww.

More about → joe fresh - twilight - swatch and review

i have conquered the floral nail!

I have tried doing floral nails multiple times. I tried freehand ones, and I tried the ones where you blob on the colors and swirl them, but I just never liked the outcome.
And a few days ago I saw an image somewhere where they used a rose stamp to make floral nails. The image was unwatermarked though so I don't know who to credit!
Anyway, I was inspired and went right to it yesterday!
And they're amazing, if I do say so myself.

(click to enlarge)

And now I'm going to post multiple pictures because I like them so much.

Perfect for spring!

They make my short nails look cute.

Even did my right hand really well!

For this design I started with 2 coats of Joe Fresh - Faded Violet.
I then added some light pink blobs with a small brush, with Wet N Wild Wild Shine - Tickled Pink. I made them roughly the same size as the rose image.
Using OPI - Dim Sum Plum I stamped the rose from Bundle Monster BM14.
And then using Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Green With Envy, I added some leaves with a small brush.
Add Seche Vite, and it's done!

Love love love.

I'm off to do some spring cleaning. Yuck.

More about → i have conquered the floral nail!

the best water marble i have ever done!

I love marbling, but I don't love wasting the polish.
And I don't love how the nails don't always end up similar enough.
So this time I decided to just do accent nails, and it was a great idea!
One of the nails ended up so good I didn't want to take it off!
(P.S. this was before I chopped my beautiful nails off :( )

See the awesome finger yet? No? Okay here's a bigger one.

Top right!! So awesome!

I miss it now! Hah!

The thumb on this one ended up pretty nice too.

Now, what I don't understand about this marble, is that it made my non-holo Color Club Fashion Addict holo!
I don't know why, but the marble really made it come out.

This is the best picture I could get of it to show the colors. It really did shine all rainbow-y in the sun.
Which is just so weird because Fashion Addict alone did not at all.

It also made Gamer Glam more sparkly too!

The colors you can see here are, as mentioned, Color Club Fashion Addict (the more opaque sparkly part,) China Glaze Gamer Glam (the thinner sparkly part,) China Glaze Spontaneous (darker purple,) and Joe Fresh Faded Violet (the lavender.)
I also used Faded Violet as a base for the marble so that it popped more, and on the other nails.

I miss this marble and I miss my long nails!
Anyway, back to my granny hobby aka crocheting! I have an adorable project going on now that I hope to have finished today. I'm also going to do my nails sometime soon! I love being done school.

More about → the best water marble i have ever done!

easter egg nails!

Finally I had some time to do the easter nails I had planned!
I like the way they turned out but my mom thought there was too much black.
Let's see what you think!
(Also you'll notice that I chopped off all my nice long nails)

As you can see I kinda messed up one of the lines on my ring finger, but please excuse that.
I still think they're adorable!
I like the thumb and middle finger especially.They turned out really good.

The easter bunny and her eggs! Haha!
I found this adorable Easter Hello Kitty at Old Navy!
And it had to make an appearance. I also have a Christmas HK. Maybe that one will make an appearance at Christmas!
I think the nails especially look cute in this picture too, they're kinda better from further away.

For these nails I used a base coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White.
Using a small brush I painted on the other colors, which are:
Joe Fresh - Powder Blue, Butter, Faded Violet
Wet N Wild Wild Shine - Tickled Pink
Icing - Mint 2 Be
And using a small striper brush I painted on the black details with WnW Wild Shine Black Creme.

I'm all ready for Easter! And I have Friday off! Yay!
I already know what I'm getting for Easter too.
Remember my amazing sheets that my extremely popular hearts hearts hearts mani was based off of?
More of those. But cotton ones for the summer. I'm still obsessed with them.
Actually I am so obsessed with those sheets that I've started making a crochet afghan like them.
So far I only have 2 squares done, but I'll show you anyway!

The green wool photographed strange, but it is actually identical to the sheets. I managed to find all the perfect wool colors!
This blanket is my summer project.
I know you guys liked my posts from a few months ago with my baking adventures, would you like to see more of my crochet adventures?

Okay, I'm going to go pass the time at work by doing a crossword and also working on my blanket! (Yes, I brought balls of wool to work.)
I hope you enjoyed my nails and my blanket-in-progress!

More about → easter egg nails!

300 followers! / springy dotty skittles

Last night I clicked over 300 followers! Thanks everyone. I've now gotten 104 new followers since starting my giveaway. That's a lot!
I'm happy to have all of you here at my little piece of the internet!

Today I'm going to show you some nails that are perfect for spring.
I wore these a few weeks ago which was a bit too early, but now is the right time!

(click to enlarge)

Pastel polka dot skittles!

I really like the subtle look of the white stamping on these colors, but I wish I had a better white stamping polish. I might have to spring for the Konad one eventually.

Here's what I used:

Joe Fresh - Faded Violet
Essie - Turquoise and Caicos
Wet N Wild Wild Shine - Tickled Pink,
China Glaze - For Audrey
Icing - Mint 2 Be
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - White On
I stamped with Bundle Monster BM19.

I've decided that a good goal for polish-buying this month is to buy less polishes than there are days in the month.
And so far it isn't working. Today is the 4th, and I already have 4. (Actually, I had these 4 on the 2nd.)

This is my first Sally's B2G1 haul. China Glaze White On White and Liquid Leather, and Nina Ultra Pro in Purple X-ing.
I needed a better quality black and white really badly, but I was waiting for a deal like this to come along to get them.
And I haven't swatched the Nina yet, but from what I an see in the bottle, it seems like a dark purple version of OPI Teenage Dream. Exciting!
I'm sure I'll be back to Sally before long...

And the fourth I bought was a bottle of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Invisible.
I needed this because if you use Seche Vite when you're trying to place multiple stones, it dries before you can get them all on! So I'll be using this to place the stones and then Seche Vite to seal them.

I noticed that this bottle of Xtreme Wear has a sticker with the name on top. I wish they all did! I have so many of these damn bottles and it would be convenient to have names on top!

I broke a nail really badly this morning getting into my dad's truck to go to work :(
Always the same nail too!
I guess I'll have to cut them all down now. Boooooooo.

More about → 300 followers! / springy dotty skittles

springtime purple skittles

Last night when I was doing my nails I was planning on using/swatching an untried color.
Buuuut then I changed my mind because these colors/this design popped into my head.

(click to enlarge)

Ahhhhhh so cute!

(click to enlarge)

Rhinestones, glitter, purple, bows... All my faves.
All these stones are from eBay- purple stone from a 3mm wheel, purple triangle from a "mixed" wheel, mid-sized pearl from 3-size pearl wheel, and a clear rhinestone from a 1.5 mm wheel.

This is my favorite stamping image out of all my plates! It's from Konad m59.
I added a 3mm rhinestone to the center.

(click to enlarge)

Polishes used:
Joe Fresh - Faded Violet (base color on all fingers)
China Glaze - Spontaneous (stripes)
Wet N Wild Wild Shine - Black Creme (stamping)
Nicole by OPI - One Less Lonely Glitter (2 coats over base color on pinky)

I can see myself doing this design in a few more colors this spring!

More about → springtime purple skittles

mint marble nail fail

As I said the day before yesterday, I spent my day off water marbling.
Before I got the cute Kicks one done, I had tried out a mint and lavender marble like one I had seen on WAH nails.
However, my mint did not want to play nice.

You couldn't even tell it was mint!
Over the white it just looked white. Some of the nails were cute but this is the type of marble I can't keep on my nails. Haha!
For this marble I used:
Icing - Mint 2 Be
China Glaze - Spontaneous
Joe Fresh - Faded Violet

I've had a bit of school work to do again this week, I'm hoping to get to redo my nails tonight or tomorrow.

As a side note, can anyone identify this mystery polish that has found it's way into my Color Club Catwalk Queen set?!

Dusty mauve purple, not taupe-y, highly pigmented.
Mystery polish!

More about → mint marble nail fail

more skittles!

Hello to my 46 new followers (and counting!)
Thank you everyone for following and a big thanks to Trincess at Emerald Sparkled for being inspired enough by my nails to do some like mine :)
I'm flattered!

On to some nails for today.
I wore these last week and got a tonne of compliments on them.
These were inspired by Cosmetic Cupcake's nails, which were inspired by a Japanese nail art magazine. Hah!

(click to enlarge)

Too cute!
I thought I had black stars to do this with, but the wheel I bought that was supposed to have them didn't :(
So I used hearts instead.

Here is a close up of the cluster of stones on my finger, with the heart right-side up.

 

I used:
Wet N Wild Shine - Black Creme and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - White On, for the polka dot nails. I did the dots with the end of paint brush. (I've got dotting tools ordered from ebay, they should be here in a few weeks.)
The ring finger is OPI - Bring On The Bling from the Burlesque collection.
Index is China Glaze - For Audrey, pinky is Joe Fresh - Faded Violet.
All stones/pearls/etc are from ebay.

:)

More about → more skittles!

valentines

Quick post today, tooooooo much school work to do.

Here are some nails I did that weren't exactly for Valentines day (I wore them last week) but fit the theme!
So I thought I would show them now to give some inspiration for v-day.

(click to enlarge)

This is Joe Fresh Faded Violet.

I used a striper brush to add lines with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, and a detail brush for the heart with Wet N Wild Black Creme.

The black pearl came from a pearl set I got on ebay.

These were a little too girly for my taste, so I didn't wear them too long.

More about → valentines