Saturday, March 31, 2012

OPI New York Ballet french manicure :)

Yesterday I bought OPI Care to danse? and Pirouette my whistle, and was debating on a manicure to do today that involved them. It then dawned on me that I haven't done a traditional french manicure in ages and thought these would work well.

Well I was right and now I think I need to get the remaining colors.... Oh how my wallet is going to hate me.

So as you may know the New York Ballet colors are really sheer and take multiple coats to get full coverage. The apply really nice and even, which I loved. I think these would be awesome for a subtle glitter sandwich.
I stated out with 3 coats of Care to danse?, I actually really liked this with just 3 coats, you could still see the smile line through the polish which I don't mind. I also love how soft and squishy it looks :)
Then I used my Billie French white and free handed on the tips, I then applied 2 more coats of Care to danse? to to tone down the white and make the base more opaque. If i was to wear Care to danse? alone it would probably be with the 5 coats as it turned out perfect, still soft and squishy but full opaque coverage as well. I then added 1 coat of Pirouette my whistle. I'm sooo happy with the way this all turned out!!! I think its soo pretty and clean looking. Its so not something I normally wear but still really pretty!!

First 3 pictures are with flash the last is no flash :)




Sorry for this being so picture heavy I just loved it so much I had to take lots. Now to try and restrain from buying the rest of the collection >.> lol

Friday, March 30, 2012

Todays haul and CG Mega bite and GR8 comparison

Today I decided that before work I should go to cosmoprof and look through there reduced polishes and see if there was any good find. Ive been wanting to do this for quite a while now I just haven't and time too. And was I ever glad that I went :) I got so many comments from the works since I was digging through there basket, I guess people usually don't lol. I was almost tempted to dump it out to see everything in it since I'm sure there's still more goodies in there :) *The 2 new ballet ones and the Russian navy and DS Magic were in there new and regular stock*

Oh and best of all I got all of this for only $44.00 :)



OPI Care to danse?, Pirouette my whistle, Warm & Fozzie, and Russian Navy


OPI DS Jewel, DS Magic, China Glaze Mega Bite and GR8

It was a hard choice which to try first and I thought why not do my first comparison post since CG Mega Bite and GR8 look almost identical. So here it is.

Both colors applied really nice and took 2 coats for full coverage. Really the only difference is the GR8 is holographic. Other than that thou they both look identical enough. Of course when I showed the hubby and said like the 2 colors hes said what 2 lol.

Pinkie, middle and thumb is CG GR8, Index and pointer is CG Mega Bite

These two pictures are with flash



These two are under a lamp



It was really hard to capture the holographic in the picture sadly but you can see it a bit better in the ones under the lamp.  Overall thou i'm happy with each color and glad I grabbed both. i'm usually not a gold fan but I do like them :)



Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Spring french manicure

Today I thought I should do a rather colorful manicure as the warm weather seems to be leaving.  So I hope this manicure might make me and any of you lovely ladies who have crappy weather smile a bit for the summer to come :)

For this manicure I started with 2 coats of Billie French white, then added on 2 coats of Pretty and Polished Party On My Yacht. Once that was fully dried I used nail guides for the french times. The pink is China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy (one of my favorite pinks), the purple is Billie Purple, and the green is Orly Green With Envy. For the silver line I just used my Silver Stripe Rite . I considered stamping something onto this as well but I thought it was pretty enough with out it and didn't want to over do it. I hope you all love it as much as I do :)

First picture is with flash, second is without.



Billie swatches

Today I took a trip to Dollar Giant to pick up some more Billies. I was hoping to find some for of their neon's which seem really hard to find, but unfortunately there were none so i bought 6 others :)


From left to right are LT. Mauve, Plutonium Plum, Majestic, Iron Red, Steel Blue and French White

LT. Mauve is a lilac cream, This took 3 coats for the picture and was really thick and streaky but smoothed out on the last coat. This would have to be my least favorite of my Billie polishes for application.


Platonium Plum is an awesome plum metallic shimmer, this color is sooo nice in person. I almost didn't want to take it off to continue swatching. It applied soo nice I almost could have gotten away with 1 coat but used 2 for this manicure.


Majestic is an almost taupe/purple metallic. It was really streaky when applying it and took 2 heavy coats for this manicure. I don't know how often ill use this as i'm not the biggest fan of the color.


Iron Red in a coral red metallic shimmer. It applied really nice in 2 coats with full coverage. Again this color is gorgeous. I really think these metallics might be good for stamping, ill have to try them out :)

Steel blue is a blue metallic shimmer. This color also like the others applied perfectly in 2 coats. This would be an awesome toe color in the summer especially if you through a SF topcoat over top to add some holoness to it :)


French White is a white cream. I had very low expectations for this as whites usually don't apply nice but this one took 2 coats and was full coverage. Applied like a dream. Will definitely be using this as my go to white and for $1.25 how can you beat that?


I'm going to have to go to the Dollar Tree again and see if I can get some more Billies. I definitely love this brand and you cant beat its quality for its price. Definitely a great investment :)




Tuesday, March 27, 2012

PAA / PCFC Butterflys and PCFC Spring Stripes

So today I did 2 challenges in one. Yesterday the PCFC was butterflies as well as today's in PAA. And tomorrow PCFC is spring stripes. So I decided to combine the two into one cute spring manicure :)

For the spring stripes I used Julep Blake, China Glaze Kinetic Candy, China Glaze Sweet Hook and Orly Cotton Candy. I think they worked really well together. All are a pastel cream and they took 2 coats two create this look. I then did a layer of my SF-35 topcoat on it for a bit of shimmer.




I then used my Art Club Black striper, and my White Stripe Rite to create the butterfly on the thumb and ring finger. I decided to only do it on 2 nails so that you can see the full stripes on the other 2 nails.



I really like the way the stripes  look as the butterfly wings, and cant believe how easy these wings were to create. I'm totally in love with them :)

Sunday, March 25, 2012

My stash :)

I decided to do a post on my stash for two reasons. One is to see how it grows over the next year, and the other is because I couldn't bring my self to take off my super hero nails and wanted something different to blog about.

So about a month ago my wonderful hubby bought me my first Helmer as my acrylic stair steps couldn't hold my stash anymore. And I must say I love how neat and tidy it is now, and that its like two feet from my computer now instead of in a different room. In my Helmer I only keep polishes, all my top coats including crackles, nail art pens, stamping tools, and accessories are kept on top in a small plastic 3 drawer container and a little makeup box :)

so the first picture will be of my actual Helmer :) I only put the names on them today and I love that I can see whats in each drawer even thou I have it memorized already he he.


I tried to fit my China Glaze into one drawer, however there were wayyy to many so the top drawer is all warm colors (pink, red, yellow and orange) as well as white, grey, brown and sparkles. The second drawer is all the cool colors (blue, green and purple). Figured that would be the best way to sort them, and I thought it was cute that the colors of the letters correspond to the drawers :).



As you can see my two drawers have roughly the same amount in them, which i'm happy about :) I do need to get liners for the drawers so my polishes don't move around so much. These two drawers are my fullest in my Helmer :)

My Billie and Orly drawer is over run by Orly right now but I added Billie to this one as I plan to grow them since they are really inexpensive and everyone Ive tried has been awesome!!! *There neon's are fantastic if you like bright colors*


 I put Julep and OPI together because I don't get those too often,. Julep I only get from my monthly box and OPI I only buy when they have a collection coming out I want and go wander around my cosmoprof.


I do however want to grow my silver cap collection, I'm planning to stop by cosmoprof this week and see if any are hanging around, 5 just isn't enough :)

My drug, misc and Finger Paints drawer has a little bit of everything from my Sally hansen's, to my Disney, my brash, Joe fresh, Kleancolor, Color club, Zoya, Savvy, Ultra pro, Sinful colors and of course my Finger Paints :)


As you can tell a lot of these I have only a few of excluding fingerpaints. As they grow I may move them into another drawer, but for now they get to spend time together :)

And my last drawer has all my mini bottles (Essence, Sally girl and OPI) as well as my indie polishes (Cult nails and Pretty and Polished), my Gelish polish which is forever growing, and the few frankens Ive made :)


I definitely want to expand my indie polishes as I love supporting those lovely ladies. And the mini bottles are just totally adorable.

Anyways I hope you all enjoyed see my stash and my way of trying to keep them organized :) I'm so happy with my Helmer and cant wait to fill it up more he he <3

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Super hero nails

For a while now Ive been wanting to attempt super hero nails but couldn't decide which to do. Today I realized that Captain America, Wonder woman, Super man, Flash, and Spider man all pretty much use the same colors so I decided to give it a try.

I used 4 stripe rites in Navy blue, White, Red and Yellow, as well as China Glaze White on white, Frostbite, Sunshine pop, and China Rouge.

First ill show you what colors I painted for the base of each superhero :)


And now the finished product. the first two are the right hand the last picture is the left hand.




Overall I'm really happy with this. I think it came out really well and will probably try this again n the future with different superhero's :). in case anyone doesn't know who's who from the thumb to the pinky it goes as follow :

- Captain America
-Wonder women
-Superman
-Flash
-Spider man

Friday, March 23, 2012

PCFC Subtle Spring Glitter/Flakie Bomb

For today's PCFC I did a "subtle" flakiebomb... It not over subtle thou lol... I started off with 3 coats of OPI Pedal faster Suzi, and then layered 2 coats of China Glaze Luxe and Lush over top. Must say i'm in love with this combination. My nails are soooo sparkly and shinny its unreal!!! They're like glowing :) If only my pictures would do it justice :(

Here first some pictures of the Pedal Faster Suzi



I love this color, its such a nice pink with a lovely shimmer to it, I just wish it applied a bit nicer.

Now onto the flakie goodness :)

First is with flash second is no flash :)


I have to say I think Luxe and Lush is one of my favorite flakies because I think it would compliment almost any color. Of course I will have to try this out at some point again :)


Thursday, March 22, 2012

Bumbles Bees with a large flower :)

So I figured since it was spring and I had to do a large flower for the PCFC that I would do a bee manicure and have a large flower as the accent nail and I love the way it turned out. Minus a few little mistakes I think it turned out really good. I used my new QA3 stamp for the bees and the stripes, The bees were easy to do, but I had a few issues getting the stripes to transfer onto the nail and not stick up.

For the base I used 3 coats of China Glaze Sunshine pop from the electropop collection. Its a very opaque color with a hint of shimmer it just doesn't go on even :( but I love the actual color :)




For the dots and the outside of the flower I used Orly Liquid Vinyl, and I filled the flower in with Sally Hansen Insta Dry Fuchsia Flare and Blue-Away.

I'm really happy with the outcome of this. I think its absolutely adorable!!!!

Tip Stamping

Sorry for my lack of posts these past three days, Ive had a bad head cold and been really under the weather. But I did decide to do some stamping on my nails yesterday on top of the Billie Neon's I did the other day. I used MLS-05 on 2 fingers and on the other two I used Pretty and Polished Valentino :)



I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. It was my first time doing stamping on my tips, I thought it was a bit hard to line up, so I had to do a few touch ups but overall it was pretty :)

Monday, March 19, 2012

Billie Neons

So this morning I woke up with a sore throat and its progressively gotten worse through out the day follower by a stuffy nose and feeling very blah, so I figured I needed some bright nails to cheer me up. The other day I purchased some Billies while looking for some for a friend. Both of these are only 2 coats!!! its amazing how well they went on and how ridiculously bright they are :) And yes I did each hand a different color. I couldn't just pick one he he.

 Here is Billie Orange *First two pictures are with flash, last is with no flash*



Here is Billie Rose *First two pictures are with flash, last is with no flash*

Now as pretty as they are alone I thought it needed some holo so I added a coat of my SF-35 topcoat to both. First picture is Orange, second is Rose.


These polishes can be purchased at Dollar Tree or Dollar Giant in Canada. Aren't they just perfect for the summer???