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 :)

yesterday during a long ride in the car to visit family my man suggested a manicure idea.  last night i decided a variation of what he described was a great idea.  so i pulled out my polishes and spent about an hour (yeah, laugh away) deciding which colours would work for the idea.

i came out with Color Club's Total Mystery (the blue), Alias (the purply-ish one), and Ulterior Motive (the pink).  all from their Alter Ego Keep It Under Cover collection.

i painted my thumbs with Total Mystery, my index fingers are half Total Mystery, half Alias.  the middle finger is all Alias.  the ring finger is half Alias, half Ulterior Motive and the pinky is all Ulterior Motive. 

with the flash to show the glitter a bit.  you can also see the shrinkage caused by my brand new Seche Vite :(

and now i must get dressed and ready to go.  we're heading out to Ikea to buy a couple of shelves for the living room so i will have more strorage for my yarn and polish :)  i love Ikea :)

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:

yep.  i went to the beauty supply store right after the bank.  sssshhh.  i like that store.  they don't carry a huge selection, but they carry enough to drool over.  and when you buy polishes they wrap them up in protective wrapping.  i declined the wrapping, i knew it would be a waste cuz i live right around the corner and the polishes were not going to stay wrapped up for long ;) 

from left to right:  i got a new Seche Vite (mine is half full and starting to do the evil shrinkage thing), China Glaze Reggae to Riches, China Glaze Sugar Plums, China Glaze Anklets of Amethysts and Orly's Prisma Gloss Silver.  i almost passed up the Orly because it had settled so badly it looked like just a clear polish.  i'm glad my curiousity got the best of me and i picked it up to see the oh so pretty holo pigment settled at the bottom.  i shook it up and then had.to.have.it. 

freehand design created mostly with my trusty Boye US1 double pointed knitting needle.  now that i see it in the light of day i think i'll get around to touching up the bow on my thumb before i leave the house :) 

polishes used:  essie sexy divide (base), Revlon Top Speed in Super Nature (green) and an unlabled Joe Fresh white.  Seche Vite top coat.

i do have to note that i was rather disappointed with essie's sexy divide.  it is such a deep beautiful purple, but no matter how thinly i applied it, how long i let it dry between coats, or which base coat i used, i kept ending up with bubbles.  i fully removed it twice and started over.  on the third go i just left it and squished out what bubbles i could by pressing down on the polish while it was still soft.  the Seche top coat smoothed out the fingerprints.  phew!

(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 27, 2011)

told ya i was on a binge...

this is Joe Fresh in Peacock.  the dots are Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Plum Power.   Seche base and top coats.

i really need some pointers on doing neater manicures.  why do i always end up with gloopies at my cuticles?  how do you all avoid that?  what's the trick i'm missing?  anyone?  :)

(moved from my old blog, original date April 25 2011)

for Easter-y coloured nails.

i used all China Glaze polishes: Bahamian Escape (blue), Light As Air (purple), Something Sweet (pink). and a Seche top coat. i’m still pretty new to doing my own nails, pardon the untidiness :)  and pay no mind to the hangnail.  :\

...and now i'm going back to bed.  i've had a migraine all day.  and i'm a dumbass and then filled up the room with the smell of nailpolish.  now my nails are pertier, but gah, my head is pounding!

(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: