Sincerely Stephanie

Snow Covered Windows - Nail Polish Canada's Holiday Nail Art Contest

2013-12-02T00:52:00.000-05:00

Purchased by Me

Helloooo Everyone!

This is a super late post from me, but I wanted to make sure I could get these nails into Nail Polish Canada's Holiday Nail Art Contest Week 1! The theme this week is SNOW! I couldn't narrow down my idea for this week until I was chatting with my roommate and she came up with snow covered windows! Like when all your window panes have snow built up in the corners. All I can imagine is sitting in a cottage somewhere with a hot chocolate curled up by a fire staring out at the evergreen trees through the snow.

These nails were quite easy to do and pretty cute from a distance! I started off with Pure Ice Bikini on all my nails to mimic the beautiful blue sky I imagined. Then I freehanded on the evergreen trees using China Glaze Running In Circles and my favourite cut down small nail art brush.

I then freehanded on the window sills using China Glaze Desert Sun to mimic wood that would be in this winter cabin I'm dreaming of. Finally I added the snow on the sills using Cult Nails Tempest and then added a layer of Pretty & Polished S'no Mans Land from last years holiday collection to give the snow a little texture.

I had a lot of fun doing these, partly because this is the first nail art I've managed to get done in a long while! I'm really glad I was able to get them done :) If you'd like you can vote for me HERE in the Snow week for Nail Polish Canada's Holiday Nail Art Contest! Or just vote for whomever's nail art you like best! Hope you're all having a fabulous week!

Brand New Jamberry Nail Wraps + Giveaway!

2013-11-28T13:44:00.000-05:00

Press Sample

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends!

For those of you that are celebrating Thanksgiving today I hope you are all having a fabulous day and eating lots of turkey and all the fixings. Here in Canada it is just another day, well actually it is the last day of the term for me! Although I still have assignments to finish, papers and exams to mark, and about a million other things on my to-do list. But classes are done!

Awhile back now the Jamberry Nails Consultant I work with, Melissa, let me know that they have reformulated the Jamberry nail wraps and they are now much easier to work with. She sent me a set, which are beautiful and much easier than the old wraps to use!

I love these gradient nails. It took me all of 15 minutes to do both hands and with no dry time I was good to go. To apply these wraps all you have to do is find the size that fits your nail then peel the wrap off the protective backing and heat up for 3-5 seconds with a hair dryer. Stretch the nail wrap over your nail and file off the remainder of the wrap so it fits to the length of your nail.

Some of the patterns are insanely amazing and I would never be able to freehand them. As well the convenience of these wraps is for sure a major plus.

Unfortunately I could not test the wear of these wraps as I can no long wear nail polish to work, but I have heard that these wraps will last up to 10 days. A hairstylist that constantly has her hands in water and peoples hair said that these lasted for 5 days on her! ISo if you don't put your hands through the ringer then these should last for a good amount of time on you :)

To celebrate the awesome new wraps we are hosting a giveaway! The prize is a nail application kit and a set of wraps! This is open to Canadian and American residents and will be open for 2 weeks. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to their email or another winner will be selected! Good luck everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Gradients and Accents Plus Where I've Been

2013-11-19T11:08:00.001-05:00

Press Sample Purchased by Me

Hello Polished Friends!

Wow it has been a long time since I sat down and wrote a post on here. I can't believe I haven't talked to you guys in over a month! There have been a number of things going on in my life that have prevented me from blogging recently. I' not going to go into too much detail, but I have been dealing with some personal and familial health issues as well as juggling grad school, and working 4+ days a week in order to pay for everything. It has been a struggle and blogging has been pushed to the back burner. I'm not going to promise that I'm coming back to full strength, but I did want to check in and let you all know I am alive and relatively OK :)

I did these accents and gradient nails a while back now, and I wasn't 100% sure I liked them at the time, and honestly I'm still not convinced lol. It seems like there is something missing... hmmmm. I do love me a gradient though and that is where the inspiration for this manicure began.

For the gradient I started out with Pure Ice Bikini which is such a soft pretty blue. Then proceeded with the gradient using Bikini and Pure Ice Flirt Alert. I did this on every other nail and then added two accents to mix things up a little. On my index nail I started with Color Club Harp On It and then added a coat of Happy Hands Motherboy. On my ring nail I started with my still favourite Cult Nails Tempest and then stamped with PUEEN 20 and black creme.

What do you think about these gradients and accented nails?! I hope I can start posting relatively more regularly soon :) Miss and love you all!

The Digit-al Dozen Does Skittles: Floralesque

2013-10-17T14:05:00.001-04:00

Press Sample Purchased by Me

Afternoon friends!

Today I have yet another skittle manicure to share with you as part of the Digit-al Dozen's Skittle Week! I really like this combination of floralesque patterns and think it's cohesive and pretty all at the same time :)

I stumbled upon this and was completely inspired to create my own version. I used a ton of polishes for this look and I'm running short on time writing this post, but if you have any questions about a particular polish just ask!

I did all the detail work with my smallest cut down nail art brush and then added some holographic silver glequins from Born Pretty Store to add a little pizazz!

What do you think of this skittle?! Be sue to stop by the rest of the Digit-al Dozen to see their skittles today!

The Digit-al Dozen Does Skittles: Skull Nets

2013-10-16T15:00:00.000-04:00

Press Sample Purchased by Me

Afternoon friends!

Today we have yet another post in the Digit-al Dozen's Skittle Week! I was trolling around the internet last night looking for some inspiration when I saw this picture that Rie of Nails and Noms posted of some awesome Black Milk Clothing Skull Net Tights! The design was really interesting and I decided to take that as my inspiration and went from there!

I again stuck with my almost all butter LONDON theme when selecting what polishes to use! I started out with Cult Nails Tempest on my index, ring and pinky nail and used butter LONDON Come To Bed Red from the upcoming Illusionist Holiday Collection (swatches will be up soon), on my thumb and middle nail. From there I started out by recreating the pattern on the Black Milk Clothing Leggings on my ring nail with my smallest cut down nail art brush and butter LONDON Union Black Jack.

On my thumb I added a coat of butter LONDON Stardust, which is also from the upcoming Illusionist Holiday Collection, over Come To Bed Red. On my index nail I added large dots with a dotting tool in Union Jack Black and then painted a gradient with Come to Bed Red and sprinkled some loose red glitter on top. On my middle nail I used an assortment of black and clear rhinestones to create the pattern. On my pinky nail I did a line of black rhinestones up the middle of my nail and then painted a line using Come To Bed Red on either side and again sprinkled glitter over that! That was a lot of explaining!

I love black, white and red together and the subtle skulls make me feel slightly rocker, while still keeping it girly. What do you think about these nails?

Make sure you check out the rest of The Digit-al Dozen to see what skittles they are rocking today!

The Digit-al Dozen Does Skittles: Purple, Green and Glitter

2013-10-15T15:30:00.000-04:00

Press Sample Purchased by Me

Afternoon loves!

I only just posted this morning, but this is my effort to catch back up in the Digit-al Dozen's Skittle week! This week was my pick so I am really excited to be posting this week! I just received an amazing package with a plethora of butter LONDON products so decided that one of my skittles needed to use some of these just stunning lacquers!

I picked out two of my favourites from the Rock Your Colour Line which are, butter LONDON Indigo Punk (the purple glitter) and butter LONDON Jaded Jack (the chartreuse green). I felt like these colours were really graphic so I decided to pair them with black and white, using butter LONDON Union Black Jack and Cult Nails Tempest. I was close to using entirely butter LONDON products, but unfortunately I don't own Cotton Buds!

For all the nail art I used the aformentioned polishes and my favourite small cut down nail art brush. I just drew random patterns until I was happy with the result. Also I left my middle nail just as butter LONDON Indigo Punk as that glitter is too pretty to not have a nail on it's own!

I love skittles so much because it allows me to play with combining patterns, which is something that I really wish I could do in fashion! Since I play it safer fashionwise I let it all go nuts on my nails!

What are your thoughts on these nails? Be sure to check out the rest of the Digit-al Dozen below!

The Digit-al Dozen Does Skittles: Neon, Nude and Studded

2013-10-15T10:15:00.000-04:00

Press Sample Purchased by Me

Good Morning friends!

This week is yet another Digit-al Dozen Week here on Sincerely Stephanie and we are welcoming some new members this week! This week is also very exciting because I chose the theme this week, and it is my absolute favourite kind of nail art, SKITTLES!! If you are looking for more information as to just what skittles are you can check out my post on The Digit-al Dozen blog here.

My post is a day late starting as yesterday was a holiday here in Canada and I was finishing up spending time with my family and boyfriend whom I won't see again for over a month, so please excuse the late start!

For this manicure I started off with OPI My Vampire is Buff on all my nails except my index nail. I then grabbed my favourite small cut down nail art brush and some gold studs from Born Pretty Store and started skittling. Yup I just made that a verb.

The gold glitter on my index nail is OPI Liquid Sand Honey Ryder and all the neon line work was done with China Glaze Sun of a Peach. The neon looks really washed out here, but it was soooo bright in person and the contrast was fantastic. I think my favourite nail is the gold cross, what do you think?

I can't wait to see what everyone else is coming up with! Hope you are all having a lovely start to your week :)

31DC2013 Roundup Post!

2013-10-02T16:00:00.000-04:00

Press Sample Purchased by Me

Afternoon friends!

I still can't believe that the challenge is over and that I actually managed to finish it! For those of you not aware I finished the challenge this month while moving, starting Grad School, and working at a place where no nail polish is allowed. So I am pretty freaking proud of myself at the moment. In all honesty my blog will probably not be as active over the next little while. I need some time to catch up on other areas of work, and sleep more :P as well working 3-4 days a week doesn't allow me to enjoy wearing my designs as much as I would like.

But enough of that! Let's take a look at all the manicures that I managed to come up with over the last 31 days! If you click on each photo it will take you to the original post.

What are some of your favourites? I think mine would have to be Day 4: Green, Day 7: Black and White, Day 8: Metallic, Day 14: Flowers, Day 19: Galaxies, and Day 22: Inspired by a Song. Is 6 too many favourites to have? I could list more even :P Which manicures were YOUR favourite in the 31DC2013?!

31DC2013: Day 31 Recreate Your Favourite

2013-10-01T14:47:00.000-04:00

Press Sample Purchased by Me

Afternoon loves!

WOW! We did it! We finished another year of the 31 Day Challenge. It's been a rough month, but we got through it and I am reaaaalllly proud of some of the manicures I came up with. You can check them all out tomorrow in my challenge round up post. It has also been really fun checking out the rest of the bloggers participating this month in the challenge. I especially enjoyed reading through my blog list this month!

Today I had to choose which one of Emily's manicures I was going to recreate. It was a tough job as so many of her manicures rocked this month. Emily also has an awesomely distinct nail art style and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do her manicures justice! I eventually settled on her Day 26 Inspired by a Pattern because her wood grain idea was genius!

I did not have the same base colour as Emily, so I decided to use one of the only cool browns that I have piCture pOlish Demeter as my base. Then I used my It's So Easy Stripe Rite Black to draw on the wood grain pattern.

These were super cute and fun to do and although mine is a tad darker than Emily's original creation I still think the overall look is similar! It is a genius idea !!

WOOOOW now I am officially done the challenge! I'm still shaking my head that it has gone by this quickly. You can check out Emily's original post here and make sure you head over to see what manicure of mine she recreated! I LOVE IT!

If you haven't yet this is your LAST CHANCE to enter our giveaway for the chance to win one of 2 $30 gift cards to Born Pretty Store.

31DC2013: Day 30 Inspired by a Tutorial

2013-09-30T11:18:00.000-04:00

Press Sample Purchased by Me

Morning friends!

Here we are in the last day in September! I can't believe we are here already! This month has seriously absolutely flown by. Today's prompt is inspired by a tutorial. There are a ton of tutorials out there for some awesome nail art. I stumbled upon this super cute Piglet tutorial by Qt Place and knew I had to do it!

Isn't this adorable?! I absolutely loved the Winnie the Pooh series when I was growing up and Piglet always stuck out to me because he was so cute and had a stutter somewhat like I did growing up. So Piglet always resonated with me.

I won't get into details about how to do this manicure because you can go check out the tutorial here! The light pink is OPI I Theodora You and the dark pink is Nicole by OPI Something About Spring. All the purple outlines are China Glaze Gothic Lolita.

What do you think of my Piglet nails?! Would you wear these?

Make sure to head over to The Lacquerologist to see what tutorial inspired Emily today! Also enter our giveaway!!
See last years tutorial inspired nails here!

31DC2013: Day 29 Inspired by the Supernatural

2013-09-29T07:00:00.000-04:00

Purchased by Me

Morning friends!

We are sooo close to the end here! Today's prompt is inspired by the Supernatural. I think this is supposed to be geared more towards ghosts, goblins and vampires, but I decided to go in the superhero direction! They have supernatural powers!

If you can't tell these are Wonder Woman nails! I feel like she's a pretty awesome heroine with a multitude of superpowers so she's totally worthy of this prompt! If you know nothing about Wonder Woman you can check out her awesomeness here!

For these nails I started off with Cult Nails Evil Queen on all my nails except my ring nail which I used Essie Butler, Please. Then I just started abstractly adding Wonder Womanesque images on all my nails. The other polishes used are Essie Good As Gold, Cult Nails Tempest and Wet n Wild Black Creme. All of it was done freehand with my small cut down nail art brush!

These were pretty fun to do and I think they fit in with the theme! I can't believe there are only two more days to go in the challenge! It's blowing my mind! Do you like my Wonder Woman nails?

Check out The Lacquerologist to see what inspired Emily today! Also only a few days left to enter our giveaway!!
See last years supernatural nails here

31DC2013: Day 28 Inspired by a Flag

2013-09-28T07:00:00.000-04:00

Purchased by Me

Morning friends!

Wow we are so close to being done this beast of a challenge! Today's prompt is Inspired by a Flag, I feel like whoever wrote this challenge had a specific manicure in mind when they were thinking of this, so like usual I resorted to Google to see what interesting flags I could find! I ended up finding a ton of really cool flags around the world, but ended up choosing the state flag of Maryland in The United States!

I think these turned out pretty cool! Here is the flag for reference if you have never seen it before,

I decided to completely replicate the flag on my thumb and then do each of the crests on my four nails! The Maryland flag is really cool because it is the heraldic banner of George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore. It is the only flag in the United States to be based on English heraldry.It also seemed appropriate to do these nails since my boyfriend grew up in Balitmore!

For these nails I started out with Cult Nails Tempest on my thumb, index and ring nail. I used Cult Nails Feel Me Up as a base on my middle and pinky nails. From there I used China Glaze Adventure Red-y to freehand the crosses and Wet n Wild Black Creme to freehand the stripes and diamond pattern.

I created the above image for easy pinning if you're into that kind of thing :)

What do you think of my Maryland State flag nails?! Are any of my readers from Maryland?

Make sure you head over to The Lacquerologist to see what flag has inspired Emily today! Also if you haven't yet make sure you enter our giveaway! Only a few days left!
Check out last years inspired by a flag nails here

31DC2013: Day 27 Inspired by Art

2013-09-27T07:00:00.000-04:00

Press Sample Purchased by Me

Morning friends!

Today's post is Day 27 in the 31 day challenge! I am soooo excited and proud that we are nearing the end! We've almost finished another year! So awesome! I am really excited about today's nails because I have been wanting to do this design since June! One of my really good friends Ashley O'Brien is an amazing artist. She paints beautifully and I got the pleasure of seeing this design in person, so when I was thinking about what to do for today's nails I finally had the excuse to do these nails!

She created this beautiful piece for her cousin's wedding so this is now in Ireland. I love the rough purple gradient and the paisley pattern. The whole thing is really amazing! For my nail interpretation I started out with my go to Cult Nails Tempest on all my nails to have a nice blank canvas to try to replicate Ashley's beautiful work!

The whole manicure was done with my smallest cut down nail art brush and a bunch of polishes! I pretty much just kept looking at the picture of her painting and painting on my own nails and adjusting until I was happy with it. Here are all the polishes used! If you're wondering about a specific one just ask below!
Pure Ice Jail Bait
LAQA & CO. Nookie
Pure Ice No Means No
OPI Miss You-Niverse (review coming soon)
OPI I'm Feeling Sashy (review coming soon)
China Glaze Gothic Lolita
China Glaze Fancy Pants
China Glaze Snap My Dragon
Born Pretty Store Sweet Color #009
Essie Good As Gold

It's a little hard to see in the picture, but on the right hand side of the painting in the purple gradient there were awesome purple rhinestones! So On my pinky and thumb I added a line of purple rhinestones to emulate that! I even tried to get her signature on my pinky! :D

I'm so happy I finally got around to doing these! That you Ashley for the amazing inspiration! What are your thoughts on these nails?!

Make sure you head over to The Lacquerologist to see what art inspired Emily today! Also be sure to enter our giveaway!!
Check out last years inspired by art nails here!

31DC2013: Day 26 Inspired by a Pattern

2013-09-26T07:00:00.000-04:00

Press Sample Purchased by Me

Good Morning loves!

Today's prompt is inspired by a pattern. This is another tricky one to interpret similar to inspired by a colour, a pattern could be anything?! When I'm stuck for inspiration I hit google and found a pretty cool blog with a post on mixing and matching spring patterns! Since we all know I'm a sucker for skittles I got super excited and decided I needed to recreate these patterns into a manicure!

I'm seriously digging these nails and am super excited about all the cohesive patterns! The inspiration for the patterns can be seen below,

I think I did a pretty good job matching them no?

For this manicure I started off with Lime Crime Milky Ways on all my nails except on my ring nail, which is just China Glaze Fancy Pants. I then proceeded to freehand on the patterns using Fancy Pants, China Glaze Budding Romance, China Glaze Snap My Dragon and Sally Hansen Lightening! I had a lot of fun making these patterns, and it's a skittle, come on I'm in love!

All the work was done with my smallest cut down nail art brush, and I actually did this on both hands! But completely spaced on taking a picture of my right hand, whoops!

I think this really fits with the inspired by a pattern theme and I'm super stoked because well I love these nails. Sorry to toot my own horn, but they are awesome! :D What are your thoughts?! I can't believe there are only 5 more days left in the challenge! I can't believe we've come this far!

Be sure to stop by The Lacquerologist to see what pattern inspired Emily today! Also there are only a few days left to enter our giveaway!!
Check out last years inspired by a pattern nails here!

31DC2013: Day 25 Inspired by Fashion

2013-09-25T07:00:00.000-04:00

Press Sample Purchased by Me

Good Morning my lovely lacquerheads!

Today's challenge prompt is all about being inspired by Fashion. In all honesty I am not a big fashionista. I love clothes, but my meager student budget does not allow me to buy incredibly gorgeous pieces that I would if I had an unlimited budget. Also the lifestyle of trekking back and forth to campus everyday does not lend itself to gorgeous dresses and heels. So I follow other fashion blogs and wish that I could afford/have somewhere to go in those beautiful clothes! Today's inspiration is from one of those blogs!

These nails are inspired by this Mara Hoffman Open Back Column Dress which unfortunately costs almost $300. Good thing a girl can dream right?! lol

These nails are loosely inspired by the dress. I was originally planning on copying the print exactly, but my nails were just too small and I was too tired after work to do all of that :P
I started off with a white base and then began freehanding on the design with my smallest nail art brush. I did it over a white base so the colours would really pop. For this manicure I used, China Glaze Igniting Love, China Glaze Budding Romance, China Glaze Sunday Funday, Sweet Color #009 along with black and white creme.

I really like these nails even if they aren't quite as crisp as I would like because I was a little on the tired side. But they look great when I hold my hand out far! What do you think about these fashion inspired nails?!

Be sure to head over to The Lacquerologist to see what Emily has done today! Also be sure to enter our giveaway!
Check out last years fashion inspired nails here!

31DC2013: Day 24 Inspired by a Book

2013-09-24T07:00:00.000-04:00

Purchased by Me

Morning friends!

Today's nails are inspired by a book! I really wanted to do Harry Potter nails, but was struggling to come up with an original way to do it. My 8 year our cousin is absolutely obsessed with Harry Potter and this past summer he went to Universal Studios and to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! Not only did he make me eat some rather disgusting Bernie Botts Every Flavour jelly beans, but he was so proud of his new stuffed toy Hedwig! So after thinking about him I decided to do some Hedwig nails!

Full disclosure, I did these nails by looking at this photo of Hedwig that I found on Google. After I was finishing I decided to google Hedwig Nail Art to see if anyone else had done something like this before. I found almost the exact same manicure on Coewless's blog! So full credit goes to her for thinking of the idea first even though I didn't know they were similar until after I was finished lol.

I started these nails off with two coats of my absolute favourite white creme Cult Nails Tempest on all my nails. Then I started drawing the eyes with Wet n Wild Black Creme. The yellow of the eyes was done with Sally Hansen Lightening and mixing varying amounts of white and black to that to get the shading. The shading for her feathers and beak were done with black and white creme as well as Revlon Hot For Chocolate again mixed with varying amounts of white creme.

On the rest of my nails I ripped a sponge up and sponged on a mixture of Hot For Chocolate and white creme. I sponged most of the polish off onto wax paper so that the sponging was as light as possible. I also went back and added a little bit of white creme over the brown to give it a different feel. I finally went in with a mixture of Hot For Chocolate and white creme and my smallest nail art brush and added the feathers in U shapes!

I really like these and I really hope that my cousin approves! These are for you Nathaniel! :D What do you think of these Harry Potter Inspired nails?!

Remember to head over to The Lacquerologist to see what book inspired Emily today! Also be sure to ENTER OUR GIVEAWAY for a chance to win one of 2 $30 gift cards to Born Pretty Store!
Check out last years inspired by a book nails here!

31DC2013: Day 23 Inspired by a Movie

2013-09-23T07:00:00.000-04:00

Purchased by Me

Morning!

Today's nails are to be inspired by a movie! I actually really struggled with this prompt. First of all there are about 6 bajillion movies out there and I reaaallllyy didn't want to take off my Roar nails from yesterday. So I pretty much procrastinated starting these all day. I cleaned, did homework, and marked before I even started looking at prompts. I asked friends what they thought and started and took off 4 other manicures before I did these. Eventually I settled on Kill Bill nail art.

I actually only saw Kill Bill for the first time this past summer! My boyfriend and I only had a few select DVDs to pick from to watch a movie and when I mentioned that I'd never seen it he was shocked and immediately said it had to be watched. I really like Quentin Tarantino movies and this was no exception!!

For these nails I started off with Sephora by OPI Cab Fare and then did all the nail art with Sally Hansen Rapid Red, Essie Good As Gold and black and white creme. It was all done by looking at various Kill Bill posters on google and using my favourite cut down nail art brush!

I'm not super thrilled with these, but that could be more because I loved yesterdays so much and I was sad to take them off! What do you think about my Kill Bill nails? Have you seen the movie?

Be sure to stop by The Lacquerologist to see what movie Emily has been inspired by today! Also ENTER OUR GIVEAWAY!
Check out last years inspired by a movie nails here.

31DC2013: Day 22 Inspired by a Song

2013-09-22T07:00:00.000-04:00

Press Sample Purchased by Me

Morning friends!

Today I have some nail art that I am very excited to share with you. I'm pretty much doing these nails day by day right now and I didn't have time to even start these nails until last night around 11pm. I was only supposed to work until 9, but ended up having to stay until 10:30pm so by the time I got home I had very little energy to think about what song I was possibly going to be inspired by. So I texted my boyfriend and said I need a song, pick me one! He immediately said Roar by Katy Perry as he had juuust heard it on the radio as he was coming home from work!

I absolutely love this song and am super thrilled that I created nail art based on it! As soon as my boyfriend said Roar I watched the video and I was instantly hit with inspiration! Check out the embedded video below. It is such a happy, feel good song!

Let's get back to looking at the nail art, because well I love it! :D

My thumb is from the opening scene in the music video, it starts off graphically saying, A Motion Theory Adventure Filmed in Junglescope with ROAR in big orange letters. My index nail is another scene from the music video where Katy is scared in the dark and can see all the eyes staring out at her. My middle nail is my favourite!! It is the tiger ROARING! I'm rather proud of how he came out :D My ring nail is pink and yellow flowers with green leaves quite like the flowers on Katy's grass skirt in the second half of the video. My pinky nail is leopard print to represent the scarf she's wearing that magically turns into a fab bralet lol.

I used waaaaay too many polishes and spent waaay too long on these nails, but I mean come on? They were worth it right? I must sound so full of myself right now! I used 24 polishes and pretty much every colour on my nail was custom mixed to get the right shade that I wanted. If you have any questions about a particular colour leave a comment below and I will let you know :)

I was sure these nails were going to be a giant fail because I was tired after work coming home, but listening to Roar on youtube like 5 times for sure put me in an awesome mood!

What are your thoughts on my Katy Perry nails?! Do these seem roar appropriate to you? Yes I make bad puns when I write posts at 2am :P

Be sure to stop by The Lacquerologist to see what song inspired Emily today! Also be sure to ENTER OUR GIVEAWAY!
Check out last years inspired by a song nails here!

31DC2013: Day 21 Inspired by a Colour

2013-09-21T07:00:00.000-04:00

Purchased by Me

Gooood Morning friends!

Today moves us into the 'inspired by' portion of the challenge. Basically if this challenge was a baby we'd be in the third trimester! This portion of the challenge is really fun as it really allows you to get creative! Last year at this time I was feeling really burnt out by the challenge, but this year I feel like it's smooth sailing! So I'm very much looking forward to the next 10 days :D

Today's prompt is Inspired by a Colour. Since we already did so many colours at the start of this challenge I, like many other lacquerheads have chosen to interpret this day as inspired by a polish colour! My choice was Essie Cute As A Button!

How cute are these buttons?! See what I did there, he he :P Ok I'm the only one laughing right? For this manicure I started off with Lime Crime Milky Ways and then proceeded to draw on my buttons using of course, Essie Cute As A Button as well as China Glaze For Audrey and Nailtini Parfait Armour.

After the initial circles had been drawn and filled in I went back with Milky Ways and drew the circles inside the buttons and finished off with a dotting tool and adding two dots inside each button to make it a button! Woah I just said button a loooot :P

These are super cute and I really love them! I hope they fit the theme, even though I didn't use Cute As A Button as my base, it's still in there, as a button :P Ok enough with the bad puns lol

Make sure you swing over to The Lacquerologist to see what inspired Emily today! Also be sure to ENTER OUR GIVEAWAY for one of two $30 gift cards to Born Pretty Store!
Check out last years Inspired by a Colour nails here!

31DC2013: Day 20 Watermarble

2013-09-20T07:00:00.000-04:00

Press Sample Purchased by Me

Good Morning!

Today brings us to the most dreaded day of the challenge, the water marble. I hate this technique. I have never posted any on this blog that I have not been forced into because of a challenge. Don't get me wrong! I have tried, again and again and watched countless videos on how to properly draw a design and I fail. Every. Single Time. I went into this with high hopes! But yet again I cannot draw a design no matter how many times I try!

For this water marble I started off with OPI Skull and Glossbones an off white gray. Then I proceeded to marble with China Glaze Gothic Lolita, China Glaze Passion For Petals as well as Skull and Glossbones. I went about it the usual way, by dropping dots into a shot glass filled with water and then drawing my design in. One nail at a time.

Well I did it. I'm not sure if I like it, I always get frustrated and associate that feeling with watermarbles. At least I didn't cry this time! There have been many times where I have attempted and after hours just stopped lol. SO what are your thoughts on this water marble?! Do you like it?

Make sure you check out Emily's water marble over at The Lacquerologist!
Check out last years water marble here!

31DC2013: Day 19 Galaxies

2013-09-19T07:00:00.000-04:00

Press Sample Purchased by Me

Good Morning loves!

Today's challenge prompt is Galaxies. The usual route of galaxy nails involves sponging on a mixture of colours until it looks like a galaxy and then adding in some stars so it is a very far away perspective. I like galaxy nails, but decided to go for a more 'close up' perspective.

Our Solar System!! I know nails like these have been done before, but I had much more fun making these than I would have doing classic galaxy nails. The base of this manicure is the beautiful Essence Jacob's Protection. This is a deep navy jelly with green and turquoise micro glitter that I thought would mimic stars in the distance.

Pretty much every colour was custom mixed so I will list all the polishes I used below. All the work was done with my smallest cut down nail art brush :D Here are all the polishes used
Sally Hansen Lightening (yellow)
Sally Hansen Rapid Red (red)
Revlon Sorbet (light orange)
Essence Wake Up! (dark orange)
China Glaze Sunday Funday (light blue)
Essie Pretty Edgy (green)
Essie Marshmallow (white jelly)
NYC Sidewalkers (gray)
Sinful Colors In The Mist (green gray)
Pure Ice Bikini (light blue)
Revlon Bare Bones (nude)
China Glaze Desert Sun (brown)
Essie Bulter Plese (cobalt blue)
Sally Hansen Ion (grey white)

SUPER love these and have been showing them to all my friends :D I don't want to take them off today to do watermarble nails. Bleh. Another least favourite :P Do you like my galaxy nails?!

Be sure to stop by The Lacquerologist to see Emily's galaxy nails!
Check out last years galaxy nails here!

31DC2013: Day 18 Half-Moon

2013-09-18T07:00:00.000-04:00

Purchased by Me

Good Morning!

Today's manicure prompt is half-moon. I had a hard time coming up with something because last year's half-moon nails are still some of my all time favourites. So I literally spent hours thinking of things that are round, and images with the moon in them and after sketching out about 5 ideas I finally settled on the wolf howling at the moon!

I actually love these! I started off with Pure Ice Bikini on all my nails as this was what I wanted the base of the moon to be. Then I pulled out Revlon Midnight Affair and freehanded the moon shape using my medium length striping brush. Then I used the brush from the polish bottle to fill in the rest of my nails with Midnight Affair.

I then used Essie Butler, Please mixed with acetone to mimic the effect of the surface of the moon. I wasn't entirely happy with that so I went back with Bikini and acetone over that in some areas to get a more layered look. I then went in with my smallest nail art brush and Midnight Affair to draw the wolf howling and some trees to give it a scenic feel! I almost used a deep blue creme instead of Midnight Affair, but I am really glad that I went with the blue shimmer as I feel it adds to the look!

I quite like this manicure and am happy with these even though I don't think they come close to topping last years nails! :P What do you think of my wolf howling at the moon manicure?!

Be sure to stop by The Lacquerologist to see what Emily's half-moon nails look like! I am sure they are awesome as she has been kicking this challenge out of the park! Also ENTER OUR GIVEAWAY!
See last year's half-moon nails here!

31DC2013: Day 17 Glitter

2013-09-17T07:00:00.000-04:00

Press Sample Purchased by Me

Morning!

Today's prompt in the 31 Day Challenge is Glitter! There is something about this prompt that really does not spark much creativity. I probably could have tried a little harder, but I did this late last night and this was all the creativity I had in me :P

I started this manicure off, knowing that I wanted to do something in a black, blue and silver combination. I pulled out my standard Wet n Wild Black Creme, my new blue crush Essie Butler, Please and my favourite silver glitter China Glaze Glistening Snow. I used Black Creme on my thumb and middle nail, Butler, Please on my index and ring nail and Glistening Snow on my pinky.

Then I grabbed my silver holographic glequins and got to work! I just did random designs on my three middle nails and then dipped my thumb and pinky in the pot to get some disco ball nails going on.

I'm not sure, there just seems like something is off about these nails. They aren't my favourite, but maybe you like them?! Let me know your thoughts below!!

Make sure to check out The Lacquerologist to see Emily's glitter nails today! Also be sure to enter our giveaway :)
Check out last years glitter nails here!

31DC2013: Day 16 Tribal

2013-09-16T07:00:00.000-04:00

Press Sample Purchased by Me

Good Morning!

Today's challenge is Tribal, I really enjoy doing tribal nails, and have done a number of different tribal designs in the past, but I have never looked up any specific tribal art and recreated that! It has always been just a random application of colours and patterns. When I was in Alaska last month I learned a lot about the Tlingit Natives, pronounced Klinget, one of the groups of native people that still call Southeast Alaska home. At the stop of Icy Strait Point, Hoonah, Alaska we discovered much of the history of the Tlingit Natives and got to experience much of the art and totem poles that exist there. I took a number of pictures of the carvings that were on the walls and I decided to recreate one of those works today!

Here is the picture I took of the carving I recreated! The lighting isn't the best, but you get the idea. In person these were so beautiful.

For this manicure I started off with a white base using Cult Nails Tempest just to have a good surface for creating the art on. Then I drew the outlines of the fish and the wings with Wet n Wild Black Creme. Then I began to fill in the coloured areas using Born Pretty Store Sweet Color #009, the teal, Cult Nails Evil Queen, the red, and a mix of Cult Nails Feel Me Up and Joe Fresh Caramel for the yellow. All the details were done with my smallest cut down nail art brush and a small dotting tool.

I went back in with OPI A-Piers To Be Tan and filled in all the remaining white areas to mimic the wood of the carvings. I really loved the final outcome of these!

I created this combination image in case any of you want to pin my tribal manicure! I had a lot of fun in Alaska and learned a great deal about the Tlingit People. If you would like to learn more, you can check out some of the facts on this Wikipedia page!

Be sure to check out The Lacquerologist to see Emily's tribal manicure today! She has been killing this challenge so make sure you're checking out her posts!
Check out last years tribal manicure here!

31DC2013: Day 15 Delicate Print

2013-09-15T07:00:00.000-04:00

Purchased by Me

Good Morning friends!

Today is pretty much the halfway point in the challenge! I can't believe we are already halfway through, this month is flying byyy! Today's prompt is delicate print. I have to say this is my least favourite day of the challenge. What exactly is meant by delicate? Plus the word print is in there. I struggled hardcore with this one. I don't think I'm entirely satisfied with what I came up with, but here it is regardless!

For these nails I started off with Color Club Metamorphosis a beautiful teal glassfleck from last years Spring Collection. From there I used my favourite cut down nail art brush to freehand a delicate pattern in Orly Luxe.

This was one of those manicures that I had no idea what I was going to do when I sat down and my first nail was a shot in the dark! I do like the final outcome, but I'm just not sure how delicate they are! My roommate says they are more pretty than delicate lol.

Well what are your thoughts on these delicate nails?! Do you think these fit the theme?

Be sure to check out The Lacquerologist to see what Emily has come up with for delicate print today! Also be sure to ENTER OUR GIVEAWAY!
Check out last years delicate nails here! Color Club Metamorphosis Orly Luxe