i admit it, i love OPI's Teenage Dream.  i think it ranks high up on my favourite glitter polishes of all time.  :)  it's a pain in the ass to remove, but while it's on it's mesmerizing.  and i love how it's so versatile!  it's so easy to build.  i love using a thin coat to give a bland polish a bit of oomph.  i also love that it's completely possible to build up in just a few coats to a full coverage polish.

today i used it to glitterize the tips and paired it with Wet n Wild's Hannah Pinktana.  i'm not fond of the name, but i do love the polish.  it dried fast like promised on the bottle.  it took four coats to get complete coverage, but since it dried so fast i am okay with that :)  the only thing i didn't like was that it was so dull after drying.  and felt a bit gritty.  a topcoat (i used Seche Vite) fixed that up easily enough :)

on to the pictures!  most were taken in natural light.  i did include a couple using the flash so you can see the scatter holo of Hannah Pinktana.  it's so so pretty in the sunlight... the kind of pretty that makes me stare at my nails and sigh in contentment :)

that is the only way i can describe this one.  barbie.  pink.  cupcake.  whoah! 

i used China Glaze's Something Sweet as the base colour.  and then  OPI's I Lily Love You for the gradient on the tips.  the heart and star are from a random assortment of nail decorations i found on eBay.  i simply pushed them gently on to the not-quite-dry polish and then used a coat of Seche Vite to keep them in place.

this is a pretty simple manicure.  but oh so pretty and girly!  i really do like the combo of Senorita Rose-Alita with V.I.P.

i painted them up last night while i watch Labyrinth.  for the first time.  ever.  i had a very sheltered childhood.  my parents became born again Christians when i was 5(ish?).  by the time i was 10 they were so brainwashed that they believed almost everything was "evil" or from the devil.  Labyrinth was an evil movie, we were not allowed to watch it.  jeeezz.  i remember my dad destroying his ABBA albums because god told him to.  yeah.  strange childhood.  :)

anyway.  i liked it.  Labyrinth, that is.  but i could not stop looking at David Bowie's crotch.  every pair of pants he wore made it impossible not to look there!  please tell me i'm not the only one who's eyes wandered to his junk every time he was in a scene!

and oh boy, do i ever.

this polish is just too cute for words.  i love it!

i'm still wearing OPI's Not Like the Movies and Sally Hansen Crackle.  darn manicure is wearing like iron.  part of me is happy to say the polishes are lasting for.ever.  part of me is kind of disappointed... i don't want to "waste" them by taking them off before they peel or wear or chip.

i applied one coat of I Lily Love you over Not Like the Movies and the black flower decal i still had on my nail.  on my pinky fingers only.  after i took the pictures i added two more coats and it has covered up the decal completely.  it is very pink in the bottle, but it applies fairly sheer and really works best over another polish.

i'm heading out tomorrow to have my acrylics filled in, so Not Like the Movies is finally coming off and i get to play again.  woot!

i bought this one a few days ago.  it took all of my willpower not to bring each and every colour of Crackle Overcoat home with me.

now that i've tried it, i'm glad i didn't buy more than one bottle.

i got Vintage Violet.  and i do love the colour.  but i can live without just about everything else about this polish.  i applied it over OPI's Not Like the Movies.  it is wearing very well from my last manicure.  most of the flower nail decals are long gone, but the polish hasn't really worn at all.  it's like iron!

first thing i noticed is that it is Stinky.  with a capital S.  okay.  no prob.  i have a few stinky polishes in my collection, i can deal with the smell.  second thing i was disappointed in was the size of the brush.  do i have monster nails or is it tiny?  i had to redip into the bottle three times to cover my ring finger nail.  and thirdly... it applied like crap for me.  it clumped up so quickly.  there was no time for going over any of the strokes, it clumped on the nail before i could redip the brush.  it's kind of hard to explain.  if i went over a stroke before it was dry it just got thick and lumpy rather than mixing in with the new stroke.  does that make sense?

it applied very thickly for me.  i tried on four nails and i just could not do a thin coat due to the small brush and quick clumping action.

it took a little longer than OPI's Shatter to crack, but i do like the crack effect.  yay... a positive!  lol.

i took all these pictures before adding my Seche Vite topcoat.  it adds a nice shine to the Sally Hansen Crackle, it dried semi-matte.  even with my trusty Seche Vite, it is still a bumpy manicure because the Crackle applied so thickly.

so... i'm sitting here at a total loss for words.  what do i say to go along with this post?  i dunno.  it's a simple manicure.  with happy little black lacey flower nail stickers and a 3D pearl.  the pearl is my first bumpy addition to a manicure and it's taking a lot of willpower not to pick it off.  lol.

while taking off my last manicure last night i realized i need to go in for a fill very soon.  so i thought i'd keep the new look simple so as not to draw too much attention to the space between where my cuticles end and the acrylic starts.  that naked space.  i wonder if there is a name for it.  hrmmm.

anyway... on to the pictures.

the girly manicure did not last.  i just couldn't take it anymore.  all the elements together were just too sweet.  so i spent a while soaking off the decals last night and removing all evidence that my nails were cutesy girly.

i replaced the girly with more pink.  but it's way less cutesy than yesterday's look. :)  i used OPI's Designer Series DS Signature and OPI's Teenage Dream from the Katy Perry Collection on my ring finger and the tip of my pinky finger.

i have to take a moment to tell you how i ended up with Signature.  i was perusing the makup section at my local Winner's (a brand name discount store here in Canada) and i saw that they had nailpolishes.  i wasn't huge into polish at the time.  i don't really even know why i looked.  but i did.  and i saw the Signature and i was wowed by it.  i didn't know it was called a "holo" or that it was discontinued or even rather iffy to get one's hands on.  i just saw *pretty* and Had To Have It.  i paid $6.99 for it.  the most expensive polish i had ever bought (at the time).  when i started to read nailpolish blogs and really get into polish i realized i had scored a pretty decent deal on the Signature!  now i kinda wish i had bought all three bottles they had!

so... in essence, OPI DS Signature started my nailpolish obsession :)

for the pinky i wiped off a lot of the polish from the brush and started applying it 3/4 down my nail.  i got a light coat of the glitter this way.  when it was dry i applied another light coat from about 1/2 way down my nail.  and then when that was dry i did another coat at just the tip of my nail.  i think the effect turned out similar to a sponged look :)

i applied my Seche Vite top coat and voila!  all done.  i applied a rather generous coat to the glitter nails but i just like my tips to feel smooth rather than gritty, as glitter tends to feel.

with flash, because it is so overcast here today that getting the camera to pick up the holo effect without the use of the flash was proving rather difficult:

nubbin nails :(  that's it... no more repairing them.  i gave in and have cut them all short.  some of them right down to the quick. 

i've been thinking about getting acrylics put on at the salon.  some of my natural nails are strong and grow forever (my ring and pinkie fingers).  others are strong but don't grow as long because of wear and tear (my index fingers).  others are just stupid.  my middle finger nails always split right at the part where the nail grows off the finger.  it's starts out as a small crack that inevitably grows and then i have to cut it off.  something similar happens with my thumbnails.  any thoughts on how to fix this?  or thoughts on acrylics?

here's a manicure from a few days ago:


OPI’s The One That Got Away, Nicole by OPI’s Honey-Dew You Love Me (hearts), Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear in Strobe Light (glitter… which i wish i hadn’t applied… it’s just too much with the hearts).

(original post date: May 28, 2011)

i've fallen a little behind on keeping up the blog with my nails!  here are the last two manis i've done.

Color Club Alias with OPI Black Shatter (pardon the not so neat application of the Shatter, i didn't want to over brush it and wreck it):

today i'm wearing Joe Fresh's Twilight.  finally got around to trying out my only flakie!

aaaaannnndd... my cell phone got a makeover.  she's currently wearing China Glaze Ruby Pumps with Nicole by OPI's Let's Get Star-ted:

i got a little crazy on the inside.  when i have time or the motivation i will be fixing this paint job!

(original posting was May 28, 2011)
well.  kinda!

this is the manicure i sported for a few days this week.  my very first scotch tape experiment.  base colour (purple) is Color Club Alias.  the red colour on the tips is OPI's The One That Got Away.  and the stars are from Nicole for OPI's Let's Get Star-ted.

up close... on this nail the polish seeped under the tape a little.  really noticable in the picture, but it wasn't as apparent in real life:

with flash cuz it brought out some of the glitter.  glitter is gooooood:

i'm thinking about starting a blog specifically dedicated to nailpolish and makeup.  yay or nay?

(from old blog, original date May 17, 2011)

okay.  it won.  i had to remove the day old Joe Fresh polish and replace it with Senorita Rose-Alita.  the glitter hearts are from Nicole by OPI Justin Bieber Step 2 the Beat of my Heart.

 (i really should have moisturized the cuticles before taking the pics huh :\ )

(from old blog, original date May 9, 2011)

about a week ago my left thumbnail broke.  spectacularly.  yay.  i had to cut it right down to the nailbed.  okay.  it's just one nail.  and it's a thumbnail, the rest of my nails aren't terribly long, so i could hide it.

and then today the middle finger on my right hand developed a large split in it.  a split that started a the edge and then grew into my nail bed.  so cutting that nail short wouldn't solve the problem, it would just leave me with another stubby nail.

i have never done serious nail repair before.  usually i cut them all down to nothing and start over.  but i've been having far too much fun with nailpolish to let that happen this time.  so i went off to wal-mart and bought a brush-on gel nail kit.  it comes with a bunch of tips (i went for short, i can't figure out how to function with long nails) so that if another nail breaks i have the kit ready to go and repairs done in a snap.

all laid out, ready for nail surgery:

the stuff took about an hour to stop feeling tacky.  i did cut down the tips after applying them to match the length to my natural nails.  here is the middle nail all done and drying:

not the neatest job.  but i give myself some props, it was my first go at applying a tip at home.

and, now, the look i'm currently sporting:

China Glaze Ruby Pumps (2 coats... and i just couldn't get a good picture of the depth of the sparkles).  Nicole by OPI in Let's Get Star-ted on my ring fingers.  i had to fish the stars out of the bottle... a bit of a disappointment, but i saw a bright side.  it gave me the opportunity to place the stars exactly where i wanted them.  one by one.  lol.

(moved from old blog... original date April 28 2011)

a little more nailpolish stash enhancement.  from right to left:  OPI Expert Touch Lacquer remover, Burlesque minis gift set (colours are The Show Must Go On, Ali's Big Break, Let Me Entertain You and Tease-y Does It), Orly in Fifty Four, OPI Katy Perry Teenage Dream and Black Shatter.  and an OPI Correct and Clean up stick because, as you've all seen, my homemade manicures need help.

(moved from my old blog... original date was April 21 2011)

i've been on a bit of a nailpolish kick lately.  i don't usually paint my fingernails because, well, frankly, it never lasts longer than a day.  but i've been poking around some nail blogs and picked up some tips for longer manicures and thought i'd try them out.  and then i found the most awesome nailpolish at a local discount store and the rest is history.  i've become addicted!

the polish that started my obsession (OPI Designer Series DS 007):

and then i came across some fun China Glaze polishes (full size bottles, from left to right: Dynasty, Luna, C-C-Courage, Drastic, Good Witch?.  and the mini bottles - i really don't know what collection they're from -, top row left to right: Something Sweet, Light As Air, Re-Fresh Mint.  bottom row: Peachy Keen, Lemon Fizz, Bahamian Escape):

base coat, top coats.  i only just bought the Seche products this afternoon, i haven't had a chance to try them out yet.  the Essie No Chips Ahead top coat was applied yesterday.  i haven't been too hard on my nails since then so i don't have a quality comment on how it's holding up.  yet.  anyway... on to the picture:

and my current home-made amature manicure.  i'm wearing China Glaze in Drastic and Essie No Chips Ahead top coat: