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.

they're all acrylicized and ready for me to paint.  i cut them that short myself.  the clicking of them on the keys of my laptop as i typed was kinda making me nuts, so i cut them short yesterday.

and finally went out to have the acylic filled this evening.  they're so fresh and new!  and naked!  i can't wait to paint them.

i stopped in at a beauty supply store across the road from where i get my nails done and they had the China Glaze Metro collection on display.  i chose the mini bottles rather than getting the big ones for fiscal reasons :)  that, and chances are i won't use up the little bottles let alone a regular size one.  and of course i went with the set with the glittery polishes.  the only one that isn't in some way glittery is Urban-Night.  it's a cream purple.  very pretty.  the other colours in the set are Skyscraper (blue jelly with silver glitter), CG in the City (burgundy-ish jelly with tiny silver/gold/burgundy glitter) and Midtown Magic (a brown-ish with fine gold glitter).

i also grabbed a bottle of Orly Glam from the clearance basket.  but, as i was sitting waiting for my nail appointment, i noticed that i was charged regular price for it.  so i'll have to go back tomorrow and have that remedied.  oh, the horrors... another stop at the beauty supply store!  ;)

*runs off to eat dinner and moisturize my cuticles*

this pretty came in the mail yesterday.  it took a while to arrive, thank you Canada Post strike.  the folks at FabulouStreet were really wonderful about working around the strike.  i highly recommend them if you're looking to buy yourself some Nfu-Ohs :)

i unwrapped my new Nfu-Oh while eating dinner out at a restaurant and could.barely.stop.myself from applying a coat right then and there.

as soon as i got home it went on over my skittles mani.  it has a wonderfully different effect on the different colours.  my favourite, although i could not capture it with the camera, is the funky way it creates a shimmery lilac/blue over the yellow polish. 

i'm excited to try it over black :)

pardon the second rate pictures and dry cuticles.  i was way too excited about taking the pictures and moisturizing my cuticles was a thought that got pushed to the back of my mind in a fairly quick manner because i just.had.to.take.pictures.naow.  i take my photos near my living room window to take advantage of the natural light, but by the time we got home from errands and dinner the sunlight had waned and wasn't great for capturing the wonderful magic of Nfu-Oh 40.  so expect better pictures in the future :)

the polishes under the Nfu-Oh are Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Grape Going!, Sally Hansen Hard As Nails in Fashionista Orange, Hot Yellow and Be Seen Blue.  last but not least is China Glaze Reggae to Riches (fuchsia).

before i show you my skittles mani, i have to share what i did to the french manicure before removing it.  i found a bottle of Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Ice Queen the other day while at Rexall (a pharmacy here in Canada).  the pink and blue hex glitter called out to me and for $2ish i couldn't resist taking her home.

so i did a "swatch" (of sorts) over the french manicure.

and now onto my skittley fingers :)

the polishes i used are Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Grape Going!, Sally Hansen Hard As Nails in Fashionista Orange, Hot Yellow and Be Seen Blue.  last but not least is China Glaze Reggae to Riches.

left hand:

 right hand (now that i'm seeing the pictures i have realized i flooded the cuticle on my middle finger.  doh!!):

mmmiiiiiinnnneeee: 

this polish was hard to capture on camera.  i have no direct sunlight coming into the apartment at the moment.  it is so sparkly in bright lights and the sun!

i took quite a few pictures of this manicure but only a few ended up usable.

the polishes i used are Nicole by OPI's Me + Blue from the Justin Bieber collection.  the purple is China Glaze C-C-Courage.  and i used one coat of Orly's Prisma Gloss Silver on the fingers with the purple polish to make it match the holo of the Me + Blue.

a blurry shot to capture the holo glitter:

natural light:

flash:

under the stove light.  pardon the background!  the lighting under the range hood caught the holo glitter nicely:

oh, yeah, and silver.  and new falsies.

i used China Glaze Reggae to Riches, Joe Fresh white, Sally Hansen Black Out and Kiss Nail Art in silver glitter.

and you can totally see that i am still pretty new to nail art by my wonky dots.  lol.  i am surprised that the silver lines turned out really rather straight and neat on my right hand, usually the designs on the right are just... blah... being right handed and all.

i'm not sure how long i'll keep this one.

i am really nervous about using polish remover on the acrylics though.  will it ruin them if i use it often?  i'll have to google that. 

 one with the flash:

this is not my usual taste.  i don't know what came over me last night when i painted my nails.  they're so... girly!  so... pink and purple!  so... feminine and pretty!  it's so not me i've already found inspiration for a new manicure and i've only been wearing this one since last night.

i used China Glaze's Anklets of Amethysts (i am so in love with this colour, it is such a pretty bluish purple), some nail stickers made by Kiss and, on my ring finger, Kiss Nail Art polish in Silver Glitter to make the little flower stem.  which is upside down to the rest of the world, but since i look at my nails more than other people do i decided to make it right side up for my view.  hehe :D

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. 

something simple tonight.  my toxic skulls were lasting perfectly fine, not even a chip!  but i get bored easily i guess, cuz i just needed a new look.  my man was off helping out a friend, so i took the opportunity to paint my nails.  he really hates the smell of nailpolish.  i really hate the smell of onions (always gives me a migraine).  so, since he never cooks with onions for me, i do the same for him with the polish and only do my nails when he's at work or very very asleep.  lol.

this one is China Glaze's Good Witch?  and Nicole by OPI's Sprinkle of Twinkle (which i scored for 50% off today at Shopper's Drug Mart).

 i decided to make the best of a bout of insomnia last night.  i just could not sleep.  i napped yesterday afternoon, thanks to a migraine :(, and then i just couldn't get back to sleep when sleep time came.  so i stayed up almost all night watching a documentary about the history of magic and painting my nails.  problem with insomnia though... i was exhausted, but could not sleep...  being exhausted while painting polka dots on small surfaces means not so great dots.  but it's a fun look despite the weird spots, so i'm sharing it with you all anyway :)


i created the dots with what i had around at the time.  i don't have any special nail art tools.  yet ;)  to make the dots i put a drop or two of polish on a scrap piece of paper.  the big dots were made by dipping the back end of a pen into the drips on the paper.  the medium dots were made with the back end of a Loew Cornell round paintbursh that i use to apply gel/cream eyeliner.  and the small dots were made with my trusty Boye US1 double pointed knitting needle.  :)

- black: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out. 
- light blue: China Glaze Bahamian Escape. 
- green: Revlon Top Speed Enamel in Super Nature. 
- dark blue: Joe Fresh Prussian Blue.

i was totally inspired to try out a white polka dot look after seeing Kayla's rainbow nails.

white is so unforgiving.  i have learned through this manicure that if you do not apply it perfectly, or clean it up perfectly, every single tiny little flaw will scream out at you in the pictures.  so pardon the flaws.

i tried to apply the flowers at different spots on each nail.  i think next time i do a look like this i'm going to put them all at the same placement... the "random" just doesn't work with this one.

colours i used:
- white: Joe Fresh (nameless)
- dark blue (dots in middle of blue flowers): Joe Fresh Prussian Blue
- light blue: China Glaze Bahamian Escape
- green: China Glaze Re-fresh Mint
- orange: China Glaze Peachy Keen
- yellow: China Glaze Lemon Fizz
- burgundy (dots in middle of pink/purple flowers): Joe Fresh Orchid
- light purple: China Glaze Light as Air
- pink: China Glaze Something Sweet.
- Seche Clear base coat and Seche Vite topcoat.

i created the dots with a knitting needle... a size US1 Boye double pointed needle.  it is perfect for dots!  and it's metal so i can easily take off any remaining polish with remover before i knit with it again.  lol.

left hand:

right hand (where it is obvious that my right hand is my dominant one and i'm not terribly skilled at dotting with my left):

(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!