Nail Art: Patchwork Mani

Oh hey guys! It's been a while since my last post - things are hectic since school has started, and my school is the over-crowded/guinea pig one so things have been a little crazy.

The previous manicure I did I forgot to take a picture of! I haven't done that since I started the site, so I'm just really stressed.

Also I joined the swim team this year, which really sucks for my poor nails <3 It's also senior years, so I have to focus on my grades.

Anyways, here's some nail art I did, trying to follow Kayla Shevonne's awesome manicure tutorial. I'm not really a pastel girl (but I'm learning to be!), so I used my metallics and such.

^ Click the peekture for nail art awesomeness^

The polishes I used were Sexy Silhouette &  Frostbite from China Glaze, as well as Positive Energy from Nicole By OPI. The black 'stitches' are using my Kiss nail art brush thing.

That's all for now ~ Hopefully I can post soon!

-Melanie

Three Manicures

Oh hey guys! Sorry for my lack of updating.. I've been super busy too lazy to bring down my cable to transfer stuff, LOL... I'm lazy...

Anyways, I've built up three swatches because of that (I've also got some new nail art and make up to show/review, sooo yeah!) and I figured I should probably post them all since I kinda disappeared - I suppose. All in all, what I've got to show you is Strawberry Fields, Watermelon Rind, and Sex In The City from China Glaze, Party Of Five Glitter from Wet 'N' Wild, and a reappearance by Groupie from L.A. Girl.

 [This post is picture heavy! Be warned!] 

First off, I want to say I didn't haul these or buy these all at the same time. I feel like I'm dying a bit more when I do that. I like to spread out my buying ;D Also, excuse the dry cuticles.

This is Strawberry Fields from China Glaze.

 

 I used to totally be against most.. well, girly shades of pink - but I've always been captivated by the swatch wheel of this at my local Sally's Beauty Supply. Unfortunately, nearly everytime I look for this, it's gone, and some incredibly obnoxious fuchsia is sitting there. I got lucky, and was searching behind other pinks and boom! Found it!
Anyyyyways, this polish applied awesome! I only used two coats, but my smile line might've been more hidden if I had gone with another coat. It's a pink with shimmery gold flecks in it that I was so in love with. I wouldn't wear this all the time, but LOVE LOVE LOVE.

Next is a glitter accent mani, featuring Sex In The City from China Glaze, and Party Of Five Glitter from Wet 'N' Wild.

 Awesome! I love blues and I have this bad obsession with those tropical looking teal colours (I have so many). This reminded me of those, but it was definitely more blue than green. I added the glitter because I wanted to make use of my glitter polishes, LOL. I hate removal (even with foil) so I usually only do accents.

SITC was only two coats, by the way. Even more awesome!

Lastly, this is the manicure I still have on. This is Watermelon Rind from China Glaze, and Groupie from L.A. Girl (which you might not know, is my all time favorite purple. Yeah. That's right)

This one was inspired by Donatello the turtle (and the boyfriend who picked green). Honestly? I wasn't 'wowed' by this polish. It looks kickass in the bottle, but I was.. eh. Not too impressed :/ If it weren't for my accent purple nails, this polish would've been off in two days. Application took three coats for opacity.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed those manicures ^_^ I have some more posts, and now that I've actually gotten a bunch of photos on my computer, they'll be up within the week (maybe. I'm so lazy)

-Melanie

GOSH: Blue Monday

Summeeerrr, wooooooo!

... Just had to get that out of my system :)

Now! Here's Blue Monday from a European brand called GOSH.

GOSH is sold in Shopper's Drug Mart across Canada. As far as I know, that's the only place to get it here.

Blue Monday is actually lighter than this - and in the bottle it had these really pretty purple fleckies. Unfortunately, when the polish dries the purple kinda disappears. So, that really sucked. Anyways, figured it would be good with some stamping, so I stamped using Nicole by OPI's Positive  and Bundle Monster plate -212.

Okay, that's all :) Till next time!

-Melanie

China Glaze: Blue Iguana from the Island Escape Collection

Oh sadness! The nails I did for prom... Apparently my pictures didnt save :/ But! I do have this swatch, of Blue Iguana from China Glaze. The colour really didn't wow me, so it was followed by a Konad/Bundle Monster stamp for an extra kick! Here's a photo.

 

(ignore the chips everywhere, I was tired of the mani... and when I'm tired of a mani I pick at it)

Blue Iguana is a not so unique frosted blue, with a pretty regular application.

It took me three coats to have decent coverage, but my smile line was still pretty visible. Hence the stamp - which is from the new Bundle Monster set, plate BM-208.  I used the special Konad stamping polish in white.

Meh, though Blue Iguana is a nice colour, it really didn't... blow me away, like I was hoping it would.

For next time, maybe some fakies? With fimos :)

-Melanie

Nicole by OPI - Loyalty To Royalty + OPI - I Juggle... Men

Hi guys! Before I head in straight to this mani, I wanted to share my junior prom pictures!

Squee!

 

Now that that's over, here's three coats of Loyalty To Royalty from Nicole by OPI, followed by two coats of I Juggle... Men from OPI.

 

This duo makes a kickass combo (they weren't my prom nails, by the way. Those will be up soon!). Loyalty To Royalty is a super bright NOTICE-ME kinda blue, quite similar to Frostbite from China Glaze 

Here's a close up of the shimmery flakiness that is I Juggle... Men.

Isn't it pretty! I'm so in love with it. It's not meant to be worn alone (unless you're into that sheer... thing). It also kinda... wrinkles? It looked really weird until I put on Seche Vite. Hmm. I'll have to try it again I suppose.

I have some exciting new posts coming up soon! Fakies with Fimos and I just got a new set of Bundle Monster plates :)

-Melanie

Sally Hansen HD: DVD over Sinful Colours: Black On Black

Look at me! Posting two days in a row ^_^

It makes it easier for me to post more frequently if I write about other products I use (I paint my nails every week...)

Anyways, I tried Sally Hansen DVD from the HD collection before on it's own, and that was a disaster. Not opaque, took forever to dry, and it just drove me insane - but the colour WAS SO PRETTY.

So, thanks to seeing a post @ Beauty by Kayla Shevonne, I decided to layer it over black.

This is base coat + two coats of Sinful Color's Black On Black + one coat of Sally Hansen DVD + Seche Vite.

Picture time!

OOOH! LOOK HOW PRETTY IT IS! <3

And you see that gap? Cleaaaaan cuticles, baby! Awwe yeah, first time cleaning it like that - it was a pain in the butt, haha - and my nails look so tiny!

I also bought a bottle of Laser from the HD collection, so I'll have to try this out soon as well! :3

Byeee!

-Melanie

China Glaze : Frostbite

Semester one is OVER! No more gym for me! Haha, such a great thing - over the semester I broke three nails halfway down the nail bed, salvaged them with nail glue, but my middle finger-nail kept breaking, grrr. I ended up chopping them all down *cries* and making them the same length. These things are like nubs, it makes me really sad, I want my nails back!

To make up for my little nubs, I painted my nails with a truly BAM! RIGHT IN YOUR FACE blue. It's called Frostbite, from China Glaze.

 Two coats for even coverage, but three coats to make it super awesome!

Like always, I topped it off with Seche Vite to make it super glossy. I've had this manicure on for 4 days now, and there hasn't been any chipping (but 5 coats of polish does that!), but there's been natural tip wear. I've gotten tons of compliments on it, too. I'm definitely in love, love, LOVE with this polish.

Revlon + NYC + Seche Vite

I decided I needed to finally use my Galaxy topcoat from Revlon, and figured it would look best over a dark blue.

So. here's two coats of NYC 115 : Skin Tight Denim Creme with two coats of Galaxy by Revlon, underneath one coat of Seche Vite.

 ^ Excuse the cuticle drag ^

Galaxy is a super awesome (discontinued, I think?) topcoat from Revlon. It's got holographic hexagonal glitter (though it's a bit tough getting those out evenly) and rainbow glitter. My NYC is like three years old, but it was surprisingly not thick and goopy but rather... runny. Still applied nicely though.

So far , only my thumb has chipped badly (and that's really my fault since I was picking at tape...) Otherwise, 6 coats of polish later (Base + Colour x2 + Top x2 + SV) and boom! I've had this manicure for practically a week!

-Melanie.

Two fakes!

I feel bad for not posting here for while - it's all been rain, rain, rain... I haven't been pleased with any of the pictures of my nails :/.

In lieu of that sad occurrence, and to make up for the last couple days, here's some fakes I designed for a couple friends...

They're simple (and the bottom one is a wee bit uneven... damn shaky hands) and practical. Seeing as we're all students, I didn't think 3D nail art would last very long.

The green is from Sinful Colours (I forgot which colour though) and it's a very, very deep green. I refuse to use it on my real nails, because that sucker needs more than 3 coats to be fully opaque.

The blue is from Wet & Wild and it's around a year old, haha. It's a beautiful frosty blue that I really adore. The white stripe was done with one of the Kiss nail art bottles I have, & the holo sparkly tips are with Twilight Nox: Disco Darling. So beautiful. It's really stunning in the sun.

Anyways, I leave on a quick trip to Vegas on Tuesday - that means sun! I'll see if I can get some pictures of the nails I'll have on (not sure what I'll use yet).

-Melanie.

Sally Hansen HD: DVD.

Alright guys, I have a this bad boy for you today. From the HD collection, this is DVD from Sally Hansen.

 Now when I call this a bad boy, I'm being pretty serious. You know how many coats this took me? One base coat + 6 coats of polish + a top coat. Yeah. I'm insane.

This was one of the sheerest polishes I have ever used. I know I probably should have layered it over something else, but I was very curious to just do it on it's own - and look at it! Look at how beautiful it is! It's like a blurple-y colour with lots of shimmer and metallic-ness and it's just so shiny~. I'm so infatuated with the colour, but not the application. All the layers of polish made drying a $(!&@. See all the nicks? Okay, maybe not. But all over my right hand, the nails are just smudgy, smudgy, smudgy!

Would I recommend this to someone? Perhaps. Do YOU have a lot of patience? And nothing else to do? This is the colour for youu!

I purchased mine at London Drugs while it was for sale at around $3.50.

-Melanie

Sinful Colors + Nicole by OPI.

Here is Gorgeous from Sinful Colors, with a top coat of Honey-Dew You Love Me? from Nicole by OPI.

 The Sinful Colors collection is easy to apply. Streaky though, this required three coats.

I was really disappointed with the Honey-Dew You Love Me? top coat. The bottle has loads of tiny teal hearts, but it was rare for me to even pick up one! I do like how it looked over the Sinful Colors one. Just Gorgeous alone, it was a frosty finish, but add the OPI? It looks like jelly!

I most certainly suggest Gorgeous by Sinful Colors. I got mine for $2 a while ago at a Walgreens or CVS in the states :3

I'll swatch one of the Claire's "mood changing" polishes tomorrow!

-Melanie.