Winking at the Royals

There is a retailer here in Canada called Ardene's and they carry a line of polish called "ACO". Boy, oh boy. I am impressed. I have purchased many polishes from this brand because they are phenomenally pigmented, long wearing and cost $3 a bottle. (They always have a deal on in-store: 2 for $6.)

Today I am going to share with you one of my favourites: "Royal Wink". Let's take a peek!


 

Shown above is 2 coats with Seche Vite.

Unfortunately this shade of purple doesn't agree with my camera and is showing more blue than she really is.

Royal Wink is a beautifully saturated medium purple leaning slightly blue. Two effortless coats with a nice self leveling effect makes this a dream polish to apply.

There is something implicitly perfect about a creme polish, wouldn't you agree?

Isn't She Pretty?!

I'm dusting off the archives and showing you a manicure that I loved wearing!

Revlon "Emerald City", 2 coats

The light green shimmer is strong enough in Emerald City that it is visible without topcoat. Very pretty. Application was a breeze, no problems. After a few hours though, I couldn't leave well enough alone and decided to glitter-fy my mani.

Emerald City with ACO "Day N Night", 1 coat

This sparkled SO NICELY. I was very happy. Even Mr. Polish commented on it;  not once, not twice, but multiple times. I was a happy lady!

Question: do you separate your un-trieds from your polish collection or keep them all together? My polish collection went from approximately 11 polishes to 983 (as of today) in about a year and a half. Needless to say, I have only worn about 20% of my collection and am constantly trying to figure out different ways to store my polishes. Untrieds/tried. Brand. Color. A combination?

I need help!!!

Haha... not that kind.

Have a fantastic day and thank you for reading. :)

Essie "Nice Is Nice" & Blog Layout Change

I had a ridiculously large amount of fun making my new banner. I will be the first to admit that I am not in any way, shape or form, technologically talented however that doesn't stop me from playing around on Paint for 2 hours. 

The final product looks pretty good to me. What do you think? 

Onto the polish.

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Lilac is one of those colours that I don't have many of in my collection, although I'm very drawn to it. I will be remeding this over the coming months. ;)

Today I have for you Nice Is Nice by Essie, which I happen to adore. 

Essie "Nice Is Nice"

3 coats, with SV topcoat

 Nice Is Nice applied nicely, although slightly thin so I applied 3 coats for a perfect application. I love the Essie brush: small brushes do it for me, folks. Haha.

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I wanted to jazz things up a touch so I added a light bit of China Glaze Frosty which I sponged to the cuticle area of my accent nails and then got my dotting tool and a couple of my ACO polishes out and dotted blue (Electric Ocean) and green (Jungle Green) polka dots over top. I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

What is your favourite lilac polish?

Blue Monday featuring China Glaze, ACO & L.A Girl

Happy Blue Monday!

China Glaze Kinetic Candy

2 coats, no topcoat

I've been reading in the blogosphere that people had excellent application with this polish. I, however, did not. It was a little thick and that made it tricky to work with. Manageable, but I had higher expectations for this one. The pretty pale blue always wins me over though, so there's no hard feelings ...

 1 coat Seche Vite on top

Silver: L.A Girl Sterling Silver, 1 coat

Medium blue: ACO True Blue, 1 thick coat

The polka dots are done with black and white acrylic paint.

True Blue is actually more teal than it shows here, *sigh*. Ah well. Still pretty, no?

Honestly, I tried to do the cloud mani that everyone has been trying out lately and it was a complete fail, so I turned the fail into a win by making it look like I intended for this to be like, well, this. Haha. 

Hope you enjoy! Have a great Monday!

2012 Mani Challenge: Color Block

I did this mani challenge a couple weeks ago but forgot to post it until now. Next month I will try and space them a little bit better, but honestly, I'm just glad I got them all done! Onto the mani.

Source

This was my inspiration picture. My creativity isn't 

that great so I work best with a little inspiration.

Now onto my 2 different versions of the Color Block mani.

 No top coat on either of these photo's.

Gold: Orly - Glitz
Green: ACO - Jungle Green
Purple: L.A. Colors - Nuclear Energy
Orange: ACO - Miami Heat

I saw many different interpretations of this mani, but decided to draw my inspiration from fashion instead. To me, the Gucci version is what I immediately think of when I hear "color block" so that's what I decided to do mine like.

It's somewhat difficult to describe the polishes because of the small space they take up in this mani, but I will say that Orly Glitz is an absolutely gem of a polish. Beautiful, striking, glamorous. It applied nicely and dried quickly. The shimmer is just stunning. I really like the mix of crème and shimmer in this mani, it definitely stands out.

Color Block mani - have you tried it yet?

Sally Hansen Gilty Pleasure & ACO Confetti Glitter

Good morning, lovelies. I had initially intended on posting a different mani today but I decided last night that I would save it for Blue Monday instead so I grabbed some polishes and came up with this mani. (I realize that this is another metallic gold polish, but I have been waiting since June to wear my Sally Hansen Gilty Pleasure!) Without further ado, on with the mani!

2 coats of Gilty Pleasure with 2 coats of Confetti Glitter, no topcoat.

One. Single. Photo. Can you believe it? I took 3-4 but I didn't feel like they captured anything that this one didn't already showcase. Quality, not quantity ladies. ;) 

Gilty Pleasure was an easy two coats. I am trying to make my polish coats thinner so I have less issue with peeling polish and this applied like a dream: the consistency of the polish was just right. 

I wanted to jazz up Gilty Pleasure so I added one of my ACO glitter polishes (from a store called Ardene's) on top. I was unsure whether I wanted to stick with the usual ring finger as my accent nail or not and ended up polishing my middle finger instead. Kind of different - I think I like it ... hmm. I definitely like the way that the gold glitter really pulls it all together. What do you think? After looking at the end result I feel like it would have been a great New Years Eve mani. It reminds me of fireworks or, as the ACO polish name implies, confetti!

Middle fingernail as an accent nail: thumbs up or thumbs down?

Haul: OPI, ACO, Sinful Colors, Essie

Last night the hubby (he needs a nickname people, any ideas?) and I went shopping. Translation: I wanted to check out some of my favourite nail polish places and so we went. I reasoned with him that I haven't purchased any polishes in July or August, up until yesterday, so he saw that as a fair enough assessment and so, with a smile, we shopped. Boy, did we ever. I say 'we' because in all honesty, I think he likes giving me his opinion. Some of my favourite purchases were the polishes that he picked out! Gotta love him. :) Anyway, onto the haul.

OPI

Coney Island Cotton Candy, Heart of Gold, Clubbing til Sunrise,
Apple Of My Eye, That's Berry Daring, We'll Always Have Paris, Funky Dunkey,
What's With The Cattitude, Skull & Glossbones, Fiercely Fiona

ACO

L-R: Blue Glitter, Faded Jeans, Blizzard, Day N Night,
Electric Chic, Fairy Dust, Confetti Glitter, Rock N Glitter

Sinful Colors

L-R: Glass Pink, Jasmine Jazz, Nail Junkie, Happy Ending, Lioba, Patrika.

Note: For whatever reason I seem to have forgotten two other shades that I purchased which
are "Out Of This World" and "Agaci". If you would like to see them posted let me know!

Essie in 'Maid To Honor'

Twenty seven polishes later, I was quite the happy lady. I have a terrible time putting polishes back especially when the OPI's were on for *GASP* $4.99 and Sinful Colors were on a BOGO sale. I couldn't pass them up. Plus, I had a gift card for some of it so I felt justified. I'm not sure what to swatch first so feel free to leave a comment if there is something you would like to see.

What have you hauled lately? I'd love to know!

Gradient & Zebra Print

Hi again. Quick post tonight. At the request of a friend of mine I tried doing a gradient manicure and for fun also tried zebra stripes. I always find "firsts" are rough but I still post them so I can share what I have learned from the experience.

Pink base is Color Club "Raspberry Rush"
Purple is ACO "Purple Rain"
Blue is Sally Hansen "Pacific Blue"

The glitter/flakie polish on my accent nail is Sinful Colors "Deep Red Ocean". I'm loving that this polish has flakies in it. *swoon*

I added zebra stripes with Wet'n'Wild "Black Creme" and added some silver glitter with a nail art polish in silver. (Nail Star Two-Way Nail Art Pens from eBay.)

I added a generous top coat with Nail Life Speed Demon Polish Dryer. It adds a great shine and dries quickly. I love it and it is 29ml's!

One tip I have for creating a gradient manicure is to make sure that your base colour is completely dry before starting to add your second and third colours. I added them by sponging them on and making sure they were blended well by waiting until they were still a little tacky and lightly sponging over it without adding additional polish to the sponge. Hopefully that doesn't sound too confusing.


I guess this can also be my "We Wear Pink On Wednesday's" nail look although I don't think I will regularly post pink manicure's on that day. It just so happens to fit. We'll see what happens. :)

Thanks for reading.

Teal & Flower Inspired

Hello, hello. I recently went on an OPI buying spree and picked up 17 of them in the last month. (Thank goodness for tax returns, haha.) Mind you, I did get them for $5.00 each so I don't feel *so* bad. One colour that I picked up and was really looking forward to using was "Austin-tatious Turquoise" from OPI's Texas Collection. It had been sitting on my nail polish shelf staring at me for a few days when I found this picture:

http://www.jade-glass.com/products/7-Flower-Copper-Steel%2C-Black%2C-Teal.html

I decided I would use this picture as my inspiration for the following look.

Base colour: 2 coats of ACO "Aruba Wave"

I layered OPI "Austin-tatious Turquoise" over the "Aruba Wave" on my accent nails and I used two coats.

With Flash. I then stuck a nail sticker on top. I didn't center it perfectly (ugh) and it looks like it's coming up but it was very secure under a thick coat of SV (Seche Vite).

I didn't have much time to do this look (I was headed to work) however, I was glad to be able to use my Austin-tatious Turquoise. 

What do you think of mixing the creme finish with the shimmer finish? I kind of liked it. 

Thanks for reading.